The Development of Barge Traffic on Georgia's ln.land Waterways, 1958-1968 and Some Development Potentials by Robert E. Van Geuns INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT DIVISION Project E-400-500 1970 Engineering Experiment Station GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECI-iNOLOGY Atlanta, Georgia Project E-400-500 THE DEVELOPMENT OF BARGE TRAFFIC ON GEORGIA'S INLAND WATERWAYS 1958-1968 AND SOME DEVELOPMENT POTENTIALS by Robert E. Van Geuns Industrial Development Division Engineering Experiment Station GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY August 1970 Table of Contents Foreword i Acknowledgments ii Surrunary iii Introduction v FRE I GHT TRAFFIC ON GEORGIA'S INLAND WATERWAYS DURING THE 1958-1968 PERIOD 1 General Discussion 1 Total Barge Traffic on the Georgia Atlantic Coast Inland Waterways 3 Brunswick Harbor 4 Savannah Harbor 6 St . Marys River 7 Savannah River below Augusta, Georgia 7 Altamaha River 8 Satilla River 9 Gulf Coast Area: Apalachicola, Chattahoochee, and Flint Rivers 9 Columbus, Georgia, and Phenix City, Alabama, Area 10 PRESENT AND FUTURE BARGING PRACTICES ON GEORGIA'S I NLAND WATERWAYS 12 Barge Lines Operating on the Georgia Inland Waterways and Types of Tows 12 LASH Vessels and Inland Waterway Transportation 14 Fishybacking by Barge 16 ACTUAL AND POTENTIAL TRAFFIC ON EXISTING AND PROPOSED GEORGIA INLAND WATERWAYS 19 Commodities Transported on the Georgia Inland Waterways 19 Traffic Potentials of Some Proposed Georgia Inland Waterways 21 ILLUSTRATIVE MATERIAL 27 Graphs 1. U. S. Resident Population, 1958-1968 28 2. Traffic on the U. S. Inland Waterways (exclusive of the Great Lakes) and Gross National Product, Constant (1958) Dollars, 1958-1968 29 Page GraEhs (continued) 3. Correlation between Traffic on U. s. Inland Waterways and Gross National Product in Constant Dollars, 1958-1968 30 4. Georgia Inland Waterway Traffic, 1958-1968 (Part I) 31 5. Georgia Inland Waterway Traffic, 1958-1968 (Part II) 32 6. Georgia Inland Waterway Traffic, 1958-1968 (Part III) 33 7. Georgia Inland Waterway Traffic, 1958-1968 (Part IV) 34 Tables 1. Principal Commodities Transported on the U. S. Inland Water- ways, 1968 and 1958 35 2. Principal Commodity Groups Transported on the Georgia At- lantic Coast Inland Waterways, 1968 and 1958 36 3. Principal Commodity Groups Shipped by Barge In and Out of Brunswick, Georgia, Harbor, 1968 and 1958 37 4. Principal Commodity Groups, Shipped by Barge In and Out of Savannah, Georgia, Harbor, 1968 and 1958 38 5. Principal Commodity Groups Shipped on the Savannah River below Augusta, Georgia, 1968 and 1958 39 6. Principal Commodities Shipped over the Altamaha River, 1968 and 1958 40 7. Principal Commodity Groups Moving over the Apalachicola, Chattahoochee, and Flint Rivers, Georgia and Florida, 1968 and 1958 41 8o Brunswick Harbor: Inland Waterway Movements, 1958-1968 42 9. Savannah Harbor: Inland Waterway Movements, 1958-1968 44 10. Savannah River below Augusta, Georgia, 1958-1968 46 11. Georgia Atlantic Coast Rivers with Barge Traffic, except the Savannah River, 1958-1968 47 12. Freight Traffic on the Apalachicola, Chattahoochee, and Flint Rivers, Georgia and Florida, 1958-1968 48 13. Columbus, Georgia, and Phenix City, Alabama, Harbors, Inland Waterway Movements, 1964-1968 50 1. Waterways of the Eastern United States 51 2. Actual and Proposed Georgia Inland Waterways 52 Foreword This is one of a series of transportation-related studies being conducted by the Industrial Development Division staff. Others of the series relate t o various surface, water, and air transportation modes as they affect Georgia and its economy. Multi-modal transportation and distribution systems have played a vital role in the economic developrnent of Georgia to date. The rapidly expand ing population of the state will continue to demand more efficient and e f f e ctive ways to move people and goods in the years ahead. Greater utilization of the waterways of Georgia to move bulk products in larger volumes can provide part of the solution to the ever expanding need s for transportation of material things. In this analysis, Robert Van Geuns, a senior member of the IDD staff, has analyzed the trends in barge traffic in Georgia over an 11-year period and discussed some potential changes in methods and equipment which may greatly change future barge traffic operations. As is the case with all IDD reports, comments and suggestions from t he reader would be greatly appreciated. Ross W. Hammond, Chief Industrial Development Divi sion GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY -i- Acknowledgments This report never would have come into being without the help of a number of organizations and individuals. Special thanks gc to the office of the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, South Atlantic division headquarters at Atlanta, Georgia, and the office of the Mobile district division at Mobile, Alabama. The Atlanta office of the Georgia Ports Authority also was extremely cooperative; both Mr. C. H. Newnan and Mr. L. Lovell Surber allowed the au t hor to share in their wide knowledge of Georgia's inland waterway traffic. Mr. J. I. Newsome, Director of Operations at the GPA's headquarters at Savannah, supplied details about their plans for accommodating LASH vessels at Savannah. Details about barging practices on Georgia's Atlantic Coast inland wa ter­ ways were obtained from Mr. Robert H. Sherman of the Merry Shipping Compa ny, Augusta, Georgia, and from Mr. S. C. Loveland, Jr. of S. C. Loveland Company , Inc., of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Similar information on the Gulf Coa s t area inland waterways came from the Florida Gravel Company, Chattahoochee, Florida, and the Mobile District Corps of Engineers office. As to the potentials of proposed new and improved Georgia inland waterways, valuable information was obtained from Dr. E. R. Jennings, Secretary of the Altamaha River Basin Commission; Mr. Jerry 0. Bange, Executive Director of the Altamaha Area Planning and Development Commission; Mr. Burton J. Bell, Execu­ tive Secretary of the Chattahoochee River Basin Development Commission; Mr. Laurie K. Abbott, Chairman of the Savannah River Basin Development Commission ; Mr. Lester S. Moody, Secretary Emeritus of the Chamber of Commerce of Greater Augusta; and Mr. Robert W. Wilson of the Augusta Port Authority. -ii- Sunnnary Georgia's inland waterway traffic during the 1958-1968 period has been de­ veloping at a healthy rate; growth averaged 4.0% per year on the Atlantic Coast, 2.3% per year in the Gulf Coast area, and 3.3% annually overall. This rate is comparable to the 3.7% average annual growth of freight traffic on all U. S. inland waterways during the same period. The three most important Georgia barge centers are: 1968 Volume (1,000 short tons) Brunswick Harbor 372 Savannah Harbor 283 Bainbridge 141 Brunswick receives all its inland waterway traffic, and Savannah the greater part of its traffic, via the intracoastal waterway. The most important commodity groups shipped over the Georgia inland waterways (internal traffic, see Introduction) are : 1968 Volume Conunodity Group (1,000 short tons) % of Total Petroleum & petroleum products 443 33.2 Chemicals & allied products 243 18.2 Nonmetallic minerals (nearly all sand & gravel) 235 17.6 Pulp, paper, & paper products 164 12. 3 Food & kindred products 122 9.1 This is a picture rather different from that presented by freight shi pped over all the U. S. inland waterways: 1968 Volume Corrnnodity (1,000 short tons) % of Total Crude petroleum & petroleum products 184,671 35.4 Bituminous coal & lignite 113,840 21.9 Sand & gravel 65,497 12.6 Chemicals & chemical products 23,021 4.4 Marine shells 20' 958 4.0 -iii- In a sense, the freight traffic on Georgia's inland waterways presents a more modern picture. The 10 most important commodities transported over Geor­ gia's inland waterways are: 1968 Volume Commodity ~lzOOO short tons} % of To t al Residual fuel oil 298 22 .3 Sand & gravel 220 16 .5 Wood pulp 131 9 .9 Basic chemicals, n.e.c. 92 6 .9 Sodium hydroxide 88 6. 6 Sugar 70 5. 2 Gasoline 64 4.8 Asphalt, tar, & pitches 48 3.6 Molasses 43 3.2 Nitrogenous fertilizer, mfd. 40 3.0 Total 10 Commodities 1,094 81.9 To t al All Commodities 1 , 335 100. 0 Of these commodities, two are based on indigenous Georgia mater ials sand and gravel; wood pulp. Sugar and sodium hydr oxide are produced by Georgia industries and so are part of the basic chemi cals , n . e . c. , and per­ haps part of the nitrogenous fertilizers and t he molasse s . That the Georgia inland waterway traffic has been gr owing at such a healthy rate is extremely encouraging, especially if it is taken into account that navigation conditions on a number of those waterways are far f r om ideal. This situation tends to show that improvement and extension of Geor gia 's net­ work of inland waterways could be a rewarding undertaking. Ano t her factor which will stimulate the construction of additional waterways and improvement of existing ones will be the development of LASH (lighter aboard ship) vessel transportation and the development of container shipments by barge. Those inland waterway developments, in turn, will stimulate the economic develop­ ment of Georgia by creating opportunities for expansion of existing a nd the creation of new industrial, agricultural, and recreational activities. -iv- Introduction This report analyzes freight traffic on Georgia 1 s inland waterways during the 1958-1968 period, examines the present and future barging practices on the state 1 s inland waterways, and considers the actual and potential commodity traffic on both existing and proposed inland waterways in Georgia. Almost all the statistics on inland waterway movements reproduced in this report are based on the Waterborne Commerce of the United States stati stics published every year by the Corps of Engineers.