Recent growth in world trade has resulted in container ship designs reaching capacity levels exceeding 8,000 TEU, representing a four-fold increase in capacity from the 1970's to the present. These new larger vessels require port calls at terminals capable of providing deeper drafts, larger cranes and storage capacity.

This shift in vessel design and growth of international trade has brought new logistics and congestion problems in and around our major U.S ports Fifty years ago, the United States developed the Interstate Highway System to move our goods to market, deploy our military assets in time of National Emergency and compliment an established rail system. The development of rail and highway in the United States has been the foundation of our domestic Intermodal system. These two transportation modes continue to deliver products to the American consumer who is largely responsible for powering the global economy today.

America's Marine Highways Cooperative was born on October 15, 2003 and consists of public and private organizations committed to improve transportation mobility through international and national marine highway shipping and the development of intermodal coastal and inland trades. It also looks to develop partnerships with carriers and shippers engaged in international trade. The Marine Highways can help you!

Marine Highways offer many benefits including fuel savings and congestion relief on crowded roads around and between urban metropolitan areas. Since the United States is the worlds leading importer, it is important that there be as many options as possible for imports to move from our ports to their final domestic destinations. U.S. international trade is likely to double in the next 20 years, compounding already-existing demands on the Nations surface transportation system. Americas Marine Highways is an important part of this system! For example, according to Texas Transportation Institutes 2007 Urban Mobility Study, congestion caused urban Americans to travel 4.2 billion hours more and to purchase an extra 2.9 billion gallons of fuel for a congestion cost of $78 billion. Further, according to the Federal Highway Administrations study entitled, Highway Economic Requirements System Improvement Cost and Pavement Life (November 6, 2003), the cost to add a lane-mile of roadway under normal conditions is as low as $2.3 million for a small urbanized area minor arterial and as high as six times that or $13.4 million per lane-mile for a major urbanized area interstate. Americas Marine Highways is identified as an efficient alternative solution to the growing freight congestion problem on our Nation's rail, highway and port systems. The Marine Highways Cooperative was formed to develop and promote better and more efficient ways to move your cargo.

The Marine Highways Cooperative works closely with the U.S Department of Transportation, Department of Defense and the Maritime Administration to develop smart transportation policies and systems.

In Europe, where governments have recognized the importance of coastwise shipping, there now exist highly developed marine highway services supplementing road and rail networks. A projected 25% growth in future marine highway services is currently projected within the European Union and it is the Cooperative's goal to increase the use of the marine highways along the coasts of the United States as well as to inland destinations.