Section A.             Marine Transportation System (MTS)

The Marine Transportation System (MTS) comprises over 25,000 miles of navigable channels, over 300 ports and related infrastructure; including pier facilities, rail connections, and highways.  Over 95% of our overseas trade and 25% of our domestic trade moves in or out by ship.  Annually, the U.S. MTS accomplishes the following:

• Moves more than 2 billion tons of freight worth one trillion dollars.
• Imports 3.3 billion barrels of oil to meet U.S. energy demands.
• Transports 134 million passengers by ferry.
• Hosts more than 5 million cruise ship passengers.
• Supports 110,000 commercial fishing vessels that contribute $111 billion to State economies.
• Serves an increasing population of 78 million Americans engaged in recreational boating.

As the world’s economies continue to grow, maritime traffic will also grow in both volume and complexity.  The United States alone is forecasting that maritime traffic in 2020 will be twice that of today.

The changing nature of marine transportation poses increased risk to safe vessel transits, to the marine environment, and to quality of human life in the vicinity of ports. Waterway systems and their associated infrastructure (piers, channels, cargo moving facilities and equipment, etc.) will require careful planning and management to meet projected, worldwide challenges of:

• Increased vessel traffic and waterways congestion;
• Larger ships with deeper drafts;
• Increased ferry traffic, some of them traveling at high speed with large numbers of passengers in congested urban port areas;
• Huge new ships carrying 6,000 or more twenty foot equivalent (TEU) containers;
• Passenger vessels designed to carry as many as 5,000 people;
• Advanced information systems technology that supports precision electronic radio-navigation; and
• Improved communications, hydrographic, and cargo systems.

The U.S. Coast Guard facilitates mobility through a multitude of activities, including:

• maintenance of a system of electronic and visual navigational aids to mariners,
• vessel traffic management services that facilitate safe passages in congested ports, and
• bridge administration that oversees the nature and size of bridges installed in national waterways.

The MTS is part of the National Transportation System triad.  It is the third leg, along with land surface (highways/rail) and air transportation.  Highways, rail and air each have defined boundaries and one main federal oversight agency, while the MTS is much more complex and not as neatly defined.  

Eighteen federal agencies own a portion of the MTS, but none are officially designated as the lead.  Also, numerous state and local agencies, many private industries, a variety special-interest groups, and the public use the MTS.

Section B.            Waterways Management

The Coast Guard’s Ports and Waterways Safety System (PAWSS) project is fostering a new generation of collision avoidance and navigation safety equipment called Automatic Identification System (AIS) which:

• combines GPS satellite navigation, electronic charts, other sensors and communications systems in innovative ways to improve mariners’ ability to perform safely, and

• permits less costly VTS operations in those ports where a risk assessment has determined the necessity of a VTS.  This risk assessment process considers various safety enhancing alternatives based on the risks in a given port, then assesses the effectiveness and cost of implementation.

http://www.iala-aism.org/mainsite/index.html

Section C.             Aids to Navigation

The United States has an interest in reducing the likelihood of vessels colliding, alliding, or grounding in order to prevent harm to people, property, or the environment.  The United States would also like to maximize the potential use of the maritime transportation system for economic gain, recreational enjoyment, and military flexibility.  A system of federal-private interventions is used to minimize transit risk and maximize mobility for military, security, economic activities, and support recreational interests of citizens.  One of the key programs in the interdependent system of risk management interventions is aids to navigation, which include:

• short-range aids to navigation (SRA),
• radio aids to navigation (RNAV),
• marine information (MI), and
• vessel traffic services (VTS).

These activities provide the mariner with an appropriate density of data that assists them through the open-ocean, coastal, harbor entry, and restricted waters phases of navigation.  Providing this data contributes to managing risks associated with vessel transits across 25,000 miles of the American maritime transportation system, serving both recreational and commercial mariners.  Aids to navigation are also expanding to include technologies like the automated information system.

Short-range aids to navigation consist of visible and audible signals placed along waterways to assist mariners in determining where they are and where they can go.  These include various size buoys and beDCOns, lighthouses, and range markers.   The fixed and floating structures carry an array of day and night visual signals, sound signals, and electronic and reflective enhancements that support the use of an aid station in conjunction with radar.

Marine information is published or broadcast in a variety of forms to meet the needs of commercial, military, and recreational mariners.  These information forms include:

• Local Notice to Mariners
• Weekly Notice to Mariners
• Broadcast Notice to Mariners
• U.S. Coast Guard Light List

The Local Notice to Mariners, which is published weekly, is the primary means by which the U.S. Coast Guard disseminates navigation information for the United States, its territories, and possessions.  The Local Notice to Mariners contains information including:

• chart and nautical publication corrections,
• channel depths,
• hazards to navigation,
• military operations, and
• bridge clearances.

When information is of such a nature that it cannot wait to be published in the Local Notices to Mariners, a Broadcast Notice to Mariners is made.  The Coast Guard disseminates Broadcast Notices to Mariners through Coast Guard and Navy radio stations.  The broadcast notices are broadcast on VHF-FM voice, NAVTEX, and other maritime frequencies and contain information of importance to the safety of navigation including:

• reports of deficiencies and changes to aids to navigation,
• changes in channel conditions and weather,
• search and rescue information,
• military exercises,
• marine obstructions, and
• important bridge information.

The Radio Navigation Program establishes, operates, and maintains electronic aids to navigation throughout the United States and in other areas of the world.  The purpose of these systems is to provide a continuous, accurate, all-weather positioning capability to military and civilian users of both maritime and aviation transportation, in order to prevent disasters, collisions, and wrecks of vessels and aircraft.  The Radio Navigation Program Office provides advice, liaison, and consultation with federal, state and local government agencies, foreign interests, user groups, and others concerning radio navigation systems.  Currently, this program consists of two operating radio navigation systems:

• LORAN-C
• Differential Global Positioning System

LORAN-C is a radio navigation system using at least three land-based radio transmitters and receivers to allow mariners, aviators, and land-based navigators to determine their position.   LORAN-C is also used to as a precise time reference; each Loran Chain’s Master station is synchronized to Universal Time within 100 nanoseconds.   LORAN-C provides position information accurate to less than .25 nautical miles with an operational availability rate of 99.7%.   LORAN-C provides coverage across the continental U.S. and Alaska.   The U.S. Coast Guard also operates LORAN-C Chains in cooperation with Canada and Russia.

The U.S. Coast Guard maintains and operates a Maritime Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS).  This system, consisting of approximately 45 radio transmitters and receivers, broadcasts correction signals to improve the accuracy and integrity of the U.S. Air Force’s satellite-based Global Positioning System (GPS).   This system, more accurate than the LORAN-C system, provides accuracies of 10 meters or less.   The Coast Guard’s Differential Global Positioning System provides complete coastal coverage of the continental U.S., major inland waterways and selected portions of Hawaii, Alaska, and Puerto Rico.

http://uscode.house.gov/title_14.htm

TOP