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Value to the Nation: Great Lakes Navigation Fast Facts

VTN Fast Facts mapNavigation is USACE's earliest Civil Works mission, dating back to 1824 when Federal laws authorized and funded USACE to improve safety on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers and several ports. USACE provides safe, reliable, efficient, and environmentally sustainable waterborne transportation systems (channels, harbors, and waterways) for movement of commerce, national security needs, and recreation. Activities in the Civil Works Navigation Program include planning, designing, constructing, operating, maintaining, and further improving navigation channels, locks and dams.

Great Lakes Navigation Fast Facts Reports

Great Lakes Navigation Fast Facts Reports can be selected by national, project, USACE Division, or USACE District level. Select 2020 Great Lakes Navigation Fast Facts Reports from the USACE Digital Library collections:

You can select an individual report, or go to a collection of reports. For a list of all reports in a collection, for example, in the project report collection, select "All Project Reports". 

Great Lakes Navigation Fast Facts Archive

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 2019 Great Lakes Navigation Fast Facts


Select 2019 Great Lakes Navigation Fast Facts Reports from the USACE Digital Library collections:

You can select an individual report, or go to a collection of reports. For a list of all reports in a collection, for example, in the project report collection, select "All Project Reports". 

How these numbers were calculated.

 2018 Great Lakes Navigation Fast Facts


Select 2018 Great Lakes Navigation Fast Facts Reports from the USACE Digital Library collections:

You can select an individual report, or go to a collection of reports. For a list of all reports in a collection, for example, in the project report collection, select "All Project Reports". 

How these numbers were calculated.

 2017 Great Lakes Navigation Fast Facts


Select 2017 Great Lakes Navigation Fast Facts Reports from the USACE Digital Library collections:

You can select an individual report, or go to a collection of reports. For a list of all reports in a collection, for example, in the project report collection, select "All Project Reports". 

How these numbers were calculated.

 2016 Great Lakes Navigation Fast Facts


Select 2016 Great Lakes Navigation Fast Facts Reports from the USACE Digital Library collections:

You can select an individual report, or go to a collection of reports. For a list of all reports in a collection, for example, in the project report collection, select "All Project Reports". 

How these numbers were calculated.

More Information

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 Benefits in Perspective


For the purposes of the Value to the Nation effort, navigation infrastructure has been subdivided into three primary categories: Inland, Coastal, and Great Lakes. Great Lakes navigation refers to the continuous 27-foot deep draft waterway that extends from the western end of Lake Superior at Duluth, MN to the Gulf of St. Lawrence on the Atlantic Ocean; a distance of over 2,400 miles. The Great Lakes are technically part of the Coastal Navigation system, but are often separated for purposes of analysis since the two systems tend to operate differently. The Great Lakes Navigation System is a bi-national resource composed of the five Great Lakes, the connecting channels of the Great Lakes, the St. Lawrence River, and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The U.S. portion of the system includes 140 harbors (60 commercial; 80 recreational), 2 operational locks, 104 miles of breakwaters and jetties, and over 600 miles of maintained navigation channels. In addition, the Great Lakes navigation system is connected to several other shallow draft waterways (Illinois Waterway, New York State Barge Canal, etc.) to form an important waterborne transportation network, reaching deep into the continent.

The primary National Economic Development (NED) benefit of USACE Great Lakes navigation infrastructure is the reduction in the cost required to transport commodities compared to the next best alternative (rail transportation).

 How these numbers were calculated


The National Economic Development (NED) benefit estimate for Great Lakes Navigation is calculated first at the commodity level by multiplying the tonnage estimate for each commodity group by the estimated savings per ton1 ($/ton) for each commodity group. The total NED benefit for Great Lakes Navigation is calculated by summing the resulting NED benefit estimates for each commodity group.

NED Benefit Estimate ($) = Estimated Tonnage Shipped (ton) x Savings per Ton Shipped ($/ton)

Benefits for the Great Lakes Navigation System were generated using a rate savings approach, where transportation rate savings per ton (by commodity type) were derived as the difference between transportation costs associated with current waterway movements and transportation costs associated with the most-likely least cost alternate transport mode. Typically, a combination of rail and/or truck is assumed to be the most-likely alternative transportation cost.

The Great Lakes Navigation transportation rates utilized in this analysis were provided by the USACE Planning Center of Expertise for Inland Navigation and Risk Informed Economics Division (PCXIN-RED). Unique rates were developed for each calendar year, by commodity group, which effectively combine the major bulk sub-groups that transit the Great Lakes navigation system. Tonnage-weighted average rates were developed using a Great Lakes System rate study. This study identified the major commodity movements that occurred in the basin, and calculated origin-destination transportation rates for waterway movements, and the least cost overland route. The difference between these two modal options represent rate savings.

Due to the nature of the USACE Navigation program, much of the division, district, and project level data includes double counting (mainly because tons that are transported in one district are also likely to be transported in other districts as they move along a waterway). In short, to accommodate these issues a national quantity of inland tonnage (based on commodity tonnage) that did not include double counted tonnages was distributed to each project based on its percentage of total tons shipped.


1Note: All tonnage values reported are measured in short tons.

Sources of Data

  • FY 2020
    • USACE Waterborne Commerce Statistics Center (WCSC), TOWS detail table. (2020). Electronic database. Maintained by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Washington, DC.
    • U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Planning Center of Expertise for Inland Navigation. (2020). Waterway and Overland Transportation Costs.
  • FY 2019
    • USACE Waterborne Commerce Statistics Center (WCSC), TOWS detail table. (2019). Electronic database. Maintained by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Washington, DC.
    • U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Planning Center of Expertise for Inland Navigation. (2019). Waterway and Overland Transportation Costs.
  • FY 2018
    • USACE Waterborne Commerce Statistics Center (WCSC), TOWS detail table. (2018). Electronic database. Maintained by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Washington, DC.
    • U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Planning Center of Expertise for Inland Navigation. (2018). Waterway and Overland Transportation Costs.
  • FY 2017
    • USACE Waterborne Commerce Statistics Center (WCSC), TOWS detail table. (2017). Electronic database. Maintained by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Washington, DC.
    • U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Planning Center of Expertise for Inland Navigation. (2017). Waterway and Overland Transportation Costs.
  • FY 2016
    • USACE Waterborne Commerce Statistics Center (WCSC), TOWS detail table. (2016). Electronic database. Maintained by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Washington, DC.
    • U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Planning Center of Expertise for Inland Navigation. (2016). Waterway and Overland Transportation Costs.