Olmsted Cost Overrun Highlighted in President’s Budget

President Obama released his fiscal year 2013 budget on February 13.  Included in the budget was a revision of the cost overrun at the Olmsted Lock and Dam project.  

The project, a replacement for locks and dams 52 and 53 on the Ohio River, had an original cost estimate of $775 million and a seven year construction schedule when it was authorized in 1988.  According to the President’s fiscal year 2013 budget, the current projected cost of completing the project has risen to $2.9 billion and will not be completed until after 2023.  

According to Michael Toohey of the Waterways Council, Inc., “No other meaningful investment in modernization of our aging inland waterways infrastructure will be made for a decade, or more, if the Olmsted project continues down its current path. Nothing for the authorized projects on the Upper Mississippi River, no investment for the Illinois, the Ohio, the Tennessee, the Cumberland, the Monongahela, or any other construction on any other part of the system. And that means no new/additional jobs, no chance to grow exports, and no transportation cost-savings returned to consumers from these shelved projects.”