Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report KTC -14-13/MTIC3-14-1F Inland Waterway Operational Model & Simulation Along the Ohio River Our Mission We provide services to the transportation community through research, technology transfer and education. We create and participate in partnerships to promote safe and effective transportation systems. © 2014 University of Kentucky, Kentucky Transportation Center Information may not be used, reproduced, or republished without our written consent. Kentucky Transportation Center 176 Oliver H. Raymond Building Lexington, KY 40506-0281 (859) 257-4513 fax (859) 257-1815 www.ktc.uky.edu Inland Waterway Operational Model & Simulation Along the Ohio River Prepared for: Multimodal Transportation & Infrastructure Consortium by the Kentucky Transportation Center 11/21/2014 This Page Left Intentionally Blank. Inland Waterway Operational Model & Simulation Along the Ohio River Authors: Principal Investigator: Doug Kreis, PE, MBA, PMP Researcher(s): Roy E. Sturgill, Jr., P.E. Brian K. Howell, P.E. Chris Van Dyke D. Steve Voss, Ph.D. Multimodal Transportation and Infrastructure Consortium P.O. Box 5425 Huntington, WV 25703-0425 Phone: (304) 696-2313 • Fax: (304) 696-6088 Disclaimer: The contents of this report reflect the views of the authors, who are responsible for the facts and the accuracy of the information presented herein. This document is disseminated under the sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s University Transportation Centers Program, in the interest of information exchange. The U.S. Government assumes no liability for the contents or use thereof. This page intentionally left blank. 4 List of Figures Figure A: Ohio River Commodity Traffic .................................................................. 12 Figure B: Equivalent Capacities across Modes ........................................................ 14 Figure C: Taxable Inland Waterways ....................................................................... 17 Figure D: IWTF Balances .......................................................................................... 18 Figure E: Locks / Dam Number 52 Commodity Flows ............................................. 21 Figure F: Barge Tow Vessel Moving Through the Newburgh Lock ......................... 27 Figure G: Smithland Lock Chamber ......................................................................... 29 Figure H: Ohio River Staircase Diagram ................................................................... 30 Figure I: Lock Chamber Fills .................................................................................... 32 Figure J: Lock Chamber Drains ............................................................................... 33 Figure K: Vessel Exist Lock Chamber ....................................................................... 34 Figure L: Wicket Dam Configurations ..................................................................... 39 Figure M: Annual Sum of Unscheduled Outages for Ohio River Locks .................... 43 Figure N: Towboat Pushing Coal Hoppers ............................................................... 46 Figure O: Tugboat Pulling Barge Load ..................................................................... 46 Figure P: Towboat & Tugboat Fleet Horsepower ................................................... 47 Figure Q: Dry Barge (Open and Covered) ................................................................ 49 Figure R: Deck Barge ............................................................................................... 50 Figure S: Lash & Seabee Barge ................................................................................ 50 Figure T: Tanker Barge ............................................................................................ 51 5 Figure U: United States Shallow Draft Barge Fleet .................................................. 52 Figure V: Draft of Ship ............................................................................................. 53 Figure W: Trip Frequencies per Year by Lock and Dam (2002‐2011) ....................... 61 Figure X: Example of a Fitted Probability Density Function .................................... 64 Figure Y: Discrete Event Simulation Model ‐ Illustrating Logic ............................... 65 Figure Z: Live Simulation from EZStrobe ................................................................. 66 Figure AA: EZStrobe Report ....................................................................................... 66 Figure AB: Simulation from IWOM ............................................................................ 84 Figure AC: Zoomed Image of McAlpine Lock & Dam Simulation from IWOM .......... 85 List of Tables Table A: Total Hours of Closure by Lock Year ........................................................ 16 Table B: Locks on the Ohio River ........................................................................... 36 Table C: Number of Lock Outages per Year ........................................................... 42 Table D: Number of Outage Hours per Lock .......................................................... 42 Table E: Commodity Types .................................................................................... 55 Table F: Commodity Tonnage at Locks / Dam Number 52 .................................... 56 Table G: Key Properties of Discrete Event Simulation Models .............................. 59 6 Executive Summary The inland waterway system of the U.S. is a vital network for transporting key goods and commodities from the point of production to manufacturers and consumers. Shipping materials via the inland waterways is arguably the most economical and environmentally friendly option (compared to hauling freight by trains or railways). Despite the advantages the inland waterways enjoys over competing modes, key infrastructure – such as locks and dams, which help to control water levels on a number of rivers and make navigation possible – is declining. Limited funds have been allocated to make the necessary repairs to lock and dam facilities. Over the past 10 years Inland Waterways Trust Fund resources (which historically funded maintenance and improvement projects) has steadily declined. Locks and dams are of particular importance, because they assist in the maintenance of navigable depths on many of the major inland waterways (Ohio River, Upper Mississippi River, Tennessee River). To better understand the operation of the inland waterway system, this report examines a portion of the Ohio River (extending from Markland Locks and Dam to Lock 53). The specific focus is to determine what delays barge tows as they attempt to lock through these critical facilities. The Ohio River is a particularly important study area. In many ways it is representative of the conditions present throughout the inland waterways system. The average age of the lock and dam facilities exceed 50 years along our study segment. Most of these facilities are operating beyond their intended design life. As locks age, they increasingly demand more scheduled and unscheduled maintenance activities. Maintenance activities often require temporarily shuttering a lock chamber and diverting traffic through another onsite chamber (often of smaller capacity). All of the facilities included in the research area have two lock chambers ‐ thus, if one goes down for maintenance all vessels are diverted through the second chamber. In many cases this situation can produce extensive delays, which precludes cargo from reaching the destination in a timely manner. Recently, the aggregate number of hours that shippers and carriers lose due to delays has escalated. Although the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – the agency responsible for the management and oversight of locks and dams – has worked to keep traffic flowing on the river, tightening budgets hamper efforts. For shippers and carriers to make informed decisions about when and where to deploy freight on the river, they require knowledge that illuminates factors that are most significant in affecting transit times. In particular this applies to certain conditions that are likely to create delays at lock and dam facilities. The purpose of this report is to 1) develop a comprehensive profile of the Ohio River that provides an overview of how it is integral to U.S. economic security 2) identify salient river characteristics or externally‐driven variables that influence the amount of water flowing through the main channel which consequently impacts vessels’ capacity to navigate 3) use this information (along with a 10‐year data set encompassing over 600,000 observations) to develop an Inland Waterways Operational Model (IWOM). The IWOM objective is to provide the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, shippers, carriers, and other interested parties with access to 7 a robust method that aids in the prediction of where and when conditions will arise on the river that have the potential to significantly impact lockage times and queue times (i.e. how long a vessel has to wait after it arrives at a facility to lock through). After qualitatively reviewing different features of the river system that affect vessel traffic, this report outlines two approaches to modeling inland waterway system behavior – a discrete event simulation (DES) model which uses proprietary software, and the IWOM. Although the DES produced robust findings that aligned with the historical data (because it relies upon proprietary software),