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https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/27432/critical-issues-in-transportation-for-2024-and-beyond

Maintaining Safe, Efficient and Sustainable Intermodal Transport through the Port of Portland

About $15 billion of freight passes annually through the Lower Columbia River (LCR) navigation channel to reach Portland and Vancouver, where most of it connects with land transport. This commerce plays a vital role in sustaining the regional economy and connecting Oregon to the global economy. The timely connection of truck and rail transport with vessels is vital, especially for export traffic. This link is susceptible to disruption if water depths in the navigation channel are shallower than expected, leading to delays and/or draft limitations. Moreover, ship drafts have increased in recent decades, 25% of the vessels calling in the river sail with a draft close to the channel depth at low water, and these carry roughly 70% of the cargo. A large vessel may have as little as 0.6 m bed clearance when it passes through a low-tide point in the river, which each vessel in transit must do. Thus, prediction and real-time communication of water level to vessels is vital to safety as well as efficiency. This has been implemented through the LOADMAX system, consisting of telemetered water-level gauges and a forecast model. Moreover, the dilemma has been made more critical by changes in the river – low water levels in the river channel between Wauna and Vancouver have decreased 0.3-1.2 m since 1940. The rate of decrease depends on location and riverflow, but appears to have accelerated in the last decade. The reasons for this decrease are not understood. For perspective, an ongoing 0.9 m channel deepening will cost about $150 million when completed, so unintended decreases in water depths are expensive as well as potentially dangerous. Lower water levels in the river also increase carbon emissions, because smaller loads mean more land and vessel transport trips. Further, navigation and salmon habitat restoration are closely connected. Dredging is used to maintain the channel, and habitat restoration is an integral part of the channel deepening. New dredging strategies are needed to maintain the newly deepened channel, but dredging that removes material permanently from the river may further lower water levels, limiting possibilities for habitat restoration and reducing bed clearance for large ships. These problems will be exacerbated by future decreases in summer river flows due to climate change.

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  • Supplemental Notes:
    • This research was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation, University Transportation Centers Program.
  • Corporate Authors:

    Portland State University

    Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, P.O. Box 751
    Portland, OR  United States  97207-0751

    Oregon Department of Transportation

    Research Section, 200 Hawthorne Avenue, SE, Suite B-240
    Salem, OR  United States  97301-5192

    Oregon Transportation Research and Education Consortium

    P.O. Box 751
    301A Engineering Building
    Portland, OR  United States  97207

    Research and Innovative Technology Administration

    1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
    Washington, DC  United States  20590
  • Authors:
    • Jay, David A
    • Pan, Jiayi
  • Publication Date: 2011-10

Language

  • English

Media Info

  • Media Type: Digital/other
  • Edition: Final Report
  • Features: Appendices; Figures; Maps; References;
  • Pagination: 60p

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 01357314
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Report/Paper Numbers: OTREC-RR-11-17
  • Files: UTC, TRIS, USDOT, STATEDOT
  • Created Date: Nov 18 2011 4:07PM