No more 'blah, blah, blah'
Small river project a sign of bigger things to come
Last week, several dignitaries gathered under sunny skies in Pleasant Valley, Iowa, for a groundbreaking ceremony for a $2.3 million mooring cell to be built in the Mississippi River.
This 30-foot-wide concrete structure will provide a place for commercial traffic to tie up closer to Lock & Dam 14 while waiting to pass through.
The idea is to give vessels a place to park, thus saving time and fuel.
If you’re not a barge operator, this may not interest you. But if you care about our nation’s infrastructure and how things get done, it should. This mooring cell is the first project from the US Army Corps of Engineers’ Navigation and Ecosystem Sustainability Program to get under construction in the Quad-Cities.
The NESP, as it’s called, goes back to 1990, when the Corps began studying the possibility of expanding the decades-old lock and dam system on the upper Mississippi River and Illinois Waterway.
This was a huge controversy back in the day. Shipping and agriculture interests were pushing for expanded locks to accommodate longer barges, while environmentalists opposed them.
One of my early assignments as a Quad-City Times reporter was to cover a meeting aimed at gathering public opinion about the study.
I remember a lot of passionate people turned out. I would end up covering a lot of stories on this topic.
The study dragged on for years, and eventually the Corps published a report identifying improvements to not just the navigation system, but the river’s ecosystem, too. And in 2007, Congress approved a water resources bill that authorized about $4 billion in projects, including several lock expansions.
Then … nothing happened.
For years.
Some minor funding was approved, but the bigger stuff didn’t go anywhere.
For years.
Commodity groups and the barge industry lobbied for action, but farmers got so frustrated that, when optimism did surface in Washington, D.C., a couple years ago, a farmer from Benton County, Iowa, who was asked by a reporter what he thought, essentially shrugged his shoulders. “I’d love to tell you that I’m encouraged,” he said, “but we’ve been listening to this song-and-dance for how many years? It’s been blah, blah, blah. Show me the money.”
Well, it turns out a few months later, somebody did.
After years of Washington politicians talking about doing something about decrepit bridges and roads in this country, President Biden and congressional Democrats made infrastructure a priority and, with the help of some Republicans like Sen. Chuck Grassley, Congress passed a $1 trillion infrastructure bill.
Other than Grassley, not a single other Republican from Iowa voted for this bill.
Last year, the Corps announced it would invest nearly $830 million in modernization projects, funded by the infrastructure plan, with a small part of it going to that mooring cell at Lock & Dam 14.
Eventually, two more cells will be built in this area, including one in Davenport, according to the Quad-City Times.
More importantly, in excess of $700 million is devoted to expanding Lock 25 upriver from St. Louis.
Finally, after years of waiting, a 1,200-foot lock that farming interests have wanted for decades to better ship their commodities downstream will get under construction.
People often ask: Why don't we build big things any more?
The answer is, because too many run-of-the-mill politicians would rather fight petty, short-term political battles and focus on getting re-elected than do the hard work to accomplish the things that truly matter in the long run.
As an Iowan, I listen to Republican politicians talk all the time about how Joe Biden doesn’t care about rural America.
Even though he approved year-round ethanol sales – much to the consternation of his environmental allies – Republicans like Gov. Kim Reynolds complained he didn’t do it sooner.
When Biden essentially torpedoed Iowa’s first-in-the-nation Democratic presidential caucuses, Sen. Joni Ernst said he was giving middle America the “middle finger.”
Iowa Democrats may miss the caucuses, but I have to ask: Who’s the one turning their back on rural Iowa, the person that signs into law a bill that will devote hundreds of millions of dollars to a historic upgrade of the river transportation system to move farm commodities downriver cheaper and faster – or the politicians from Iowa who opposed it.
Infrastructure in this country gets built with money, not with snarky tweets, hashtags and persistent votes against long-term investments. As that Benton County farmer suggested a couple years ago, if that’s all you’re doing, it’s just a bunch of “blah, blah, blah.”
That mooring cell at Lock & Dam 14 is a small investment, but the expansion at Lock & Dam 25 is a much bigger one.
They both are a long time coming. They’re not happening by accident, either. They’re happening because of years of hard work – and because enough people in Congress put aside politics and voted in the best interests of their constituents, even as others opposed them.
The people who benefit should remember this.
A word before you go
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Ed.. being in public office is easy if all you do is spout off and look for ways to get attention for yourself. But getting good things done is usually very hard work and requires getting along with others, the kind of behavior you were supposed to learn back in kindergarten! Good column. Those of us who don’t see that Big River every day like you do need to be reminded more often how much it means for all Iowans. Even though it’s been years since I lived on River Drive in Davenport, I still miss it.
Glad you highlighted this, Ed. The administration needs to do a better job publicizing it’s many accomplishments.