Coosa-Alabama River Profile
The Coosa River drops 450 feet in elevation between Rome and its confluence with the Tallapoosa.
The Alabama River drops 106 feet in elevation from its head above Montgomery to its confluence with the Tombigbee.
The Coosa River drops 450 feet in elevation between Rome and its confluence with the Tallapoosa.
The Alabama River drops 106 feet in elevation from its head above Montgomery to its confluence with the Tombigbee.
Port and inland waterways add greatly to our economy:
Value of cargo
Hydroelectric power
Scope of ports and waterways
Recreation
Much of the material presented here is based on the U.S. Department of Transportation, Maritime Administration brochure, “Environmental Advantages of Inland Barge Transportation.”
Shipping by barge is more energy efficient than over land. Water transport expends 433 BTU per ton-mile versus 696 for rail.
Compare the relative distance each mode of transportation can carry one ton of cargo for every gallon of fuel burned:
Truck – 59 miles Train – 202 miles Barge – 514 miles
Barges can carry large loads of bulk materials up to five times their own weight – 15 times that of one rail car and 60 times greater than one semi-trailer truck.
Mode | Tons | Bushels | Gallons |
Barge | 1,500 | 52,500 | 453,600 |
Railcar | 100 | 3,500 | 30,240 |
Truck | 25 | 875 | 7,560 |
Mode | Deaths | Injuries |
Barge Tows* | 0.01 | 0.09 |
Trucks** | 0.84 | NA |
Railroads** | 1.15 | 21.77 |
Statistics show that barge transportation has fewer accidents, fatalities, and injuries than truck or rail.
* Barge data from National Transportation Statistics Annual Report 1993, pp 32-33
** Truck and rail data from US Statistical Abstract 1993, pp 610, 621, 630. Truck deaths includes only truck occupants. Other victims not counted.
The table shown is from “Inland Waterways as Vital National Infrastructure: Refuting ‘Corporate Welfare’ Attacks,” page 25, by Dr. C. Jake Haulk of the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy, 1998.
Mode | Hydrocarbons | Carbon Monoxide | Nitrogen Oxide |
Towboat | 0.0009 | 0.0020 | 0.0053 |
Railcar | 0.0046 | 0.0064 | 0.0183 |
Truck | 0.0063 | 0.0190 | 0.1017 |
The waterways industry has long worked to maintain and develop our inland waterways in a way that protects the ecological health of the river basins.
Extracted from “Inland Waterways as Vital National Infrastructure: Refuting “Corporate Welfare” Attacks” by Dr. C. Jake Haulk, Allegheny Institute for Public Policy, p. 24.