The U.S. Marine Highway System consists of thousands of miles of navigable channels, waterways, rivers, bays, coasts, the Great Lakes, and the Saint Lawrence Seaway. The goal of the Maritime Administration’s (MARAD’s) U.S. Marine Highway Program (USMHP) is to expand the use of the Nation’s navigable waters to relieve landside congestion, reduce emissions, and generate other public benefits by increasing the efficiency of the surface transportation system. The USMHP currently includes 31 Marine Highway Routes (MHRs) designated by the Secretary of Transportation that span 26,291 miles of navigable waterways, are roughly parallel to existing landside routes, and serve as extensions of the surface transportation system.

The Fiscal Year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) broadened the definition of marine highway transportation to include:

  • Bulk, liquid, and loose cargo, in addition to previously eligible types of freight, including intermodal cargo containers, roll-on/roll-off cargo, unitized freight, and freight vehicles carried aboard commuter ferry boats; and
  • Shipments of eligible cargo from U.S. ports to/from ports in Canada and Mexico.

The legislation directed MARAD to submit a report to Congress on opportunities for maritime highway transportation, with a focus on the Gulf of Mexico, Puget Sound, and Salish Sea System regions, known as the “study regions.” The report also considered maritime connections in Canada and Mexico.

MARAD relies on the U.S. DOT Volpe Center’s multidisciplinary and freight expertise to support its mission of working with the Nation’s port operators, cargo carriers, and shippers to ensure a functional, robust, and profitable maritime industry. The U.S. DOT Volpe Center assembled a team of operation research analysts, maritime experts, geographic information system (GIS) specialists, economists, planners, and engineers to support MARAD’s report to Congress.

Working in close collaboration with MARAD’s Office of Ports and Waterways Planning, the U.S DOT Volpe Center researched and summarized the history of the USMHP. The team also analyzed applicable grant programs, cargo transport data, and available infrastructure and equipment at the study ports; developed detailed data on the commodities transported to and from the 48 study ports (38 in the U.S., five in Canada, and five in Mexico); reviewed and synthesized maritime study reports; prepared marine highway and port location GIS maps; and created a stakeholder questionnaire and facilitated discussions with key stakeholders.

The U.S. DOT Volpe Center conducted its research in three phases, each with its own report.

Phase I assessed current conditions and trends in maritime highway transportation and the impact of the 2023 NDAA legislative changes on USMHP.

Phase II produced objectives and strategies for expanding the use of the existing MHRs and for potentially developing new ones. The objectives measure progress toward achieving the USMHP goals.

Phase III built upon the Phase II activities and identified opportunities MARAD can pursue to implement the objectives and strategies.

MARAD’s final report used the research provided in the phase reports to identify opportunities for using the Nation’s waterways more consistently, thereby creating greater public benefits and incentivizing shippers to use these critical transportation channels. The opportunities include exploring partnerships with the public and private sectors to improve and expand maritime highway transportation; investigating opportunities presented by the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement to develop maritime highway transportation and to foster efficient and sustainable trade in North America; integrating MHRs into the Nation’s multimodal transportation network; continuing to promote public and environmental benefits offered by maritime highway transportation; encouraging the use of the Marine Highway System to transport federally owned, procured, financed, or generated cargo; and continuing to use and identify information technology tools to support maritime highway transportation initiatives and decisions.