Travel times on inland waterways : historic statistical calculations between selected locks and river confluences using Automatic Identification System (AIS) data from calendar year 2021

Abstract

In the context of multimodal-freight modeling efforts, the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory (CHL), entered into an inter-agency agreement with the Department of Transportation (USDOT), Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), to produce travel-time statistics for select portions of the US inland waterway transportation system. Statistics include the median, interquartile range average, and 10th–90th percentile averages between origin and destination (OD) sets selected based on vessel traffic activity, especially lock and dam locations, which are natural stopping points. Travel-time statistics are derived from position reports broadcast via Automatic Identification System (AIS) transceivers for vessel transits that occurred in 2021. This technical report summarizes the methodology and findings.