To ensure continued and reliable delivery of U.S. soy exports to customers around the world, the Minnesota Soybean Research & Promotion Council has invested checkoff resources into funding preengineering and design work to enhance and maintain Lock and Dam No. 25 on the Upper Mississippi River — a U.S. infrastructure asset critical for efficient barge traffic.

"It is necessary that we forge ahead to improve our locks and dams," says Joe Serbus, MSR&PC chair, who represents the council on the Soy Transportation Coalition (STC). "We want to correct what needs fixing and look toward the future."

MSR&PC contributed $25,000 toward the project, joining the United Soybean Board (USB), the STC, Illinois Soybean Association, Iowa Soybean Association, Missouri Soybean Merchandising Council and Iowa Corn Promotion Board in committing $1 million to offset preengineering and design work expenses required to move the project forward.

If approved for federal funding, the project would be the first under the Navigation and Ecosystem Sustainaibility Program. NESP is a long-term program authorized by Congress to improve and restore the Upper Mississippi River system. Improvement opportunities include reducing commercial traffic delays while restoring, protecting and enhancing the environment.

Lock and Dam No. 25 is one of seven existing locks specified by NESP for improvements. These existing locks, constructed in the 1930s, experience significant delays due to the single 600-foot lock chambers that raise and lower vessels moving from one water level to another. The 600-foot chambers require 1,200-foot barges to be disconnected and double-locked, significantly slowing delivery of U.S. grain commodities.

"This is an important step for our industry, because one of the biggest advantages we have is our waterway system," says Gene Stoel, an MSR&PC and USB director who also sits on the STC. "When you look at barge movement, it′s far cheaper to send it down; and if we don′t improve our infrastructure, we lose our cost advantage over our competitors."

Infrastructure upkeep

According to a report prepared for the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, Lock and Dam No. 25 accommodates 200 million bushels of soybeans annually. The Waterways Council Inc. says an outage at this facility would cost nearly $1.6 billion and increase the number of truck traffic trips by more than 500,000 annually.

Additionally, a 2016 economic impact analysis by the USDA demonstrated this lock and dam’s importance — predicting that even just a three-month shut down (from September to November) would result in aggregate economic activity related to grain barge transportation declining by $933 million.

"Agricultural products comprise 70% of what we move through this part of the Mississippi River, so it′s significant to U.S. farmers and international customers that rely on this infrastructure to have our transportation corridor functioning," says Andy Schimpf, navigation business line manager, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. "Barge transport via the lock and dam system provides the most economical, efficient and sustainable method of shipping U.S. soybeans and other goods."

Lock and Dam No. 25 isn′t the first critical infrastructure project taken on by the soy checkoff. In 2019, the checkoff invested in research, analysis and design to initiate dredging of the lower Mississippi River. That initial funding helped open the door to a $245 million investment from the federal government and the state of Louisiana to dredge the area from 45 to 50 feet. Once complete, the project is estimated to create an additional $461 million in value opportunity for U.S. soybean farmers.

Source: Minnesota Soybean, which is solely responsible for the information provided and is wholly owned by the source. Informa Business Media and all of its subsidiaries are not responsible for any of the content contained in this information asset.