Resilient Transportation Systems in a Post-Disaster Environment: A Case Study of Opportunities Realized and Missed in the Greater New Orleans Region, 2010

Based upon our research in Post-Katrina New Orleans, we define transportation resiliency as a system’s ability to function before, during and after major disruptions through reliance upon multiple mobility options. The importance of a resilient transportation system becomes more apparent during disasters where multiple options for mobility are necessary for both passenger and goods movement due to the potential loss of one or more modes. Post-Katrina New Orleans offers a unique opportunity to investigate pre-disaster planning and post-disaster recovery activities in a major metropolitan city where all modes of transportation were either severely damaged or completely destroyed. In response to Hurricane Katrina, the costliest disaster in U.S. history, new policies and programs have been adopted in New Orleans, in Louisiana, and at the federal level for disaster preparedness and post-disaster recovery. This paper addresses how transportation systems and policies in New Orleans have evolved in the wake of Hurricane Katrina (2005) to achieve a greater degree of resiliency and ultimately better serve the mobility needs of the community in future disaster situations

New Orleans Metropolitan Inland Waterway Container Transport (IWCT) Feasibility Study

The continued growth in freight movements within the U.S land transportation network has reached a point where alternative means of augmenting its capacity should be investigated. Market demand factors such as door-to-door and just-in-time delivery have contributed to the strong growth in both road and rail transport sectors. This heavy reliance on ground transport has resulted in increased traffic congestion, worsened bottlenecks throughout the network, road deterioration, air pollution, highway accidents, and fuel consumption. The integration of the inland waterway network into our current intermodal transportation system could serve as an alternative to long haul freight movements and alleviate some of these negative impacts. The U.S. Department of Transportation and the Maritime Administration (MARAD) have recently placed new importance on shifting freight movements, particularly containers, to the nation’s waterways by creating a priority federal program: North American Marine Highways. MARAD hopes to demonstrate that the nation’s inland waterways can serve as an additional transportation system to landside modes for container transport to relieve congestion and reduce demand on landside intermodal connectors and highway infrastructure. This study has analyzed successful Inland Waterway Container Transport (IWCT) systems in Europe and in select U.S. locations. Further, it assessed the feasibility of IWCT within the Mississippi River trade corridor. The study addresses the potential benefits of IWCT in the US as identified in the literature review, the challenges and limiting factors which have inhibited its development to date, and examines the differences between IWCT development in the US (negligible) and in Europe, where IWCT is a small but rapidly growing and successful sector of certain freight networks. Based on the analysis and findings, the study concludes that IWCT has sufficient landside infrastructure in place or pending to resume service almost immediately. The major hurdles are all market related: unbalanced trade flows; insufficient north bound containers; the absence of a “Multi-Port Complex” with a 1M TEU annual capacity. The project concludes with policies and programs that seek to guide future investment decision-making by the Regional Planning Commission (the Metropolitan Planning Organization for the New Orleans region) as well as the Louisiana legislature and other state departments. The study also highlights the resiliency factors associated with inland waterway transportation at local, state and national levels

Incorporating Lower Mississippi River Port Assets into Emergency Preparedness and Response Initiatives

The Lower Mississippi River (LMR) and its 5 deep water ports represent a significant national asset as well as a critical portion of a major transportation corridor from the heartland of the country to the Gulf of Mexico. The lower portion of the Mississippi River is particularly subject to major disruptions caused by both manmade and natural disasters. In light of recent events of national significance (Hurricane Katrina of 2005 and the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill of 2010) researchers at UNOTI questioned: 1) what assets at the LMR ports are available to respond to these events; 2) what agreements either exist or are needed to access them during emergency or disaster situations. UNOTI conducted extensive on-site interviews with port officials to determine their existing assets and USCG officials to determine if these assets are included within their various plans for emergency or disaster response. What we discovered is that a variety of assets do exist but, to date, they are not an integral part of any regional or national response plan. In times of disaster affecting the LMR all assets may be called into service. Depending in the magnitude it the event, regardless of the specific plans being utilized, contingency measures call into play all conventional and unconventional assets to deal with the after effects. This was the case in both Hurricane Katrina and the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. The responses to these events can be used to improve our ability to respond in a more comprehensive and “all hands - all assets - all responses” manner. UNOTI’s Appendix A provides the USCG and other organizations with a current inventory of port assets that can be incorporated into their emergency response plans, most specifically the USCG’s Area Contingency Plan (ACP) and identifies what agreements currently exist to access these assets in times of disaster

Incorporating Lower Mississippi River Port Assets into Emergency Preparedness and Response Initiatives

The Lower Mississippi River (LMR) and its 5 deep water ports represent a significant national asset as well as a critical portion of a major transportation corridor from the heartland of the country to the Gulf of Mexico. The lower portion of the Mississippi River is particularly subject to major disruptions caused by both manmade and natural disasters. In light of recent events of national significance (Hurricane Katrina of 2005 and the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill of 2010) researchers at UNOTI questioned: 1) what assets at the LMR ports are available to respond to these events; 2) what agreements either exist or are needed to access them during emergency or disaster situations. UNOTI conducted extensive on-site interviews with port officials to determine their existing assets and USCG officials to determine if these assets are included within their various plans for emergency or disaster response. What we discovered is that a variety of assets do exist but, to date, they are not an integral part of any regional or national response plan. In times of disaster affecting the LMR all assets may be called into service. Depending in the magnitude it the event, regardless of the specific plans being utilized, contingency measures call into play all conventional and unconventional assets to deal with the after effects. This was the case in both Hurricane Katrina and the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. The responses to these events can be used to improve our ability to respond in a more comprehensive and “all hands - all assets - all responses” manner. UNOTI’s Appendix A provides the USCG and other organizations with a current inventory of port assets that can be incorporated into their emergency response plans, most specifically the USCG’s Area Contingency Plan (ACP) and identifies what agreements currently exist to access these assets in times of disaster

New Orleans Metropolitan Inland Waterway Container Transport (IWCT) Feasibility Study

The continued growth in freight movements within the U.S land transportation network has reached a point where alternative means of augmenting its capacity should be investigated. Market demand factors such as door-to-door and just-in-time delivery have contributed to the strong growth in both road and rail transport sectors. This heavy reliance on ground transport has resulted in increased traffic congestion, worsened bottlenecks throughout the network, road deterioration, air pollution, highway accidents, and fuel consumption. The integration of the inland waterway network into our current intermodal transportation system could serve as an alternative to long haul freight movements and alleviate some of these negative impacts. The U.S. Department of Transportation and the Maritime Administration (MARAD) have recently placed new importance on shifting freight movements, particularly containers, to the nation’s waterways by creating a priority federal program: North American Marine Highways. MARAD hopes to demonstrate that the nation’s inland waterways can serve as an additional transportation system to landside modes for container transport to relieve congestion and reduce demand on landside intermodal connectors and highway infrastructure. This study has analyzed successful Inland Waterway Container Transport (IWCT) systems in Europe and in select U.S. locations. Further, it assessed the feasibility of IWCT within the Mississippi River trade corridor. The study addresses the potential benefits of IWCT in the US as identified in the literature review, the challenges and limiting factors which have inhibited its development to date, and examines the differences between IWCT development in the US (negligible) and in Europe, where IWCT is a small but rapidly growing and successful sector of certain freight networks. Based on the analysis and findings, the study concludes that IWCT has sufficient landside infrastructure in place or pending to resume service almost immediately. The major hurdles are all market related: unbalanced trade flows; insufficient north bound containers; the absence of a “Multi-Port Complex” with a 1M TEU annual capacity. The project concludes with policies and programs that seek to guide future investment decision-making by the Regional Planning Commission (the Metropolitan Planning Organization for the New Orleans region) as well as the Louisiana legislature and other state departments. The study also highlights the resiliency factors associated with inland waterway transportation at local, state and national levels