A Robust Strategy for Managing Congestion at Locks on the Upper Mississippi River

The Mississippi River is an important waterway in national and global supply chains, especially for agricultural commodities. The tools available for managing traffic congestion on the Upper Mississippi River (UMR) include operational policies such as sequencing vessels at locks, tactical decisions such as using helper boats to speed lockages, and strategic decisions such as constructing new larger locks. We describe the use of our detailed multi-lock discrete event simulation model to evaluate operational, tactical and strategic congestion mitigation measures for the UMR. With a focus on policy issues surrounding lock expansion, we evaluate the national net economic benefits of different congestion mitigation measures and identify a robust strategy for implementing measures that maximizes the national net economic benefit. We also highlight the importance of traffic forecasts for future inland waterway infrastructure investments.