Comparative coal transportation costs: an economic and engineering analysis of truck, belt, rail, barge and coal slurry and pneumatic pipelines. Volume 4. Barge transport. Final report

Technical Report · Mon Aug 01 04:00:00 EDT 1977

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/6276943· OSTI ID:6276943

Rieber, M.; Soo, S. L.

Commodity transportation by barge is possible on about 25,000 miles of navigable inland waterways in the contiguous 48 states. Barge operations are used chiefly for the movement of bulk raw materials ranging from farm products to iron ore, coal, and other bulky semi-finished as well as finished products such as steel, chemicals and petroleum. The barge industry, unlike other transportation industries, is largely unregulated.. This is because all liquid bulk commodities, most dry bulk commodities transported by for-hire carriers and by companies engaged in private transportation of their own commodities are exempted from Interstate Commerce Commission regulations. The approximately 1700 companies engaged in commercial barge operations use a total of about 4100 towboats and tugs with a combined horsepower of 5,088,221; 21,876 dry cargo barges with a total cargo capacity of 25,525,896 net tons and 3,534 tank barges with a cargo capacity of 8,201,561 net tons. Even though the railroads have carried the major portion of the coal produced in ths country, the inland waterways have borne a substantial percentage of the total. In 1974, domestic barges carried 122,581,992 net tons of coal. The location of the major river systems may make waterways a significant means by which to more the projected increases in coal production from central Appalachia and the northern Great Plains to the Midwest. In this study we examine the cost and capacity parameters of those waterways that affect the movement of coal.

• Research Organization: Illinois Univ., Urbana (USA). Center for Advanced Computation
• OSTI ID: 6276943
• Report Number(s): DOE/TIC-10053(Vol.4)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
013000* -- Coal
Lignite
& Peat-- Transport
Handling
& Storage
BARGES
CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS
COAL
COST
ENERGY SOURCES
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
INLAND WATERWAYS
TERMINAL FACILITIES
TRANSPORT