Strategic Inland Ports of the Future

America’s inland waterways aren’t a secondary network — they are the port system, and they’re national-security infrastructure. Seventy percent of what moves on them is petroleum, farm products, coal, or raw materials that feed the defense industrial base, power agriculture, and sustain the energy supply. Prosody makes that case through the Rock Island, Illinois corridor — where an active Army arsenal, an agricultural logistics hub, and a public-private port converge on the same stretch of river — and argues for targeted fixes to the SHIPS Act that would keep the inland system from being perpetually crowded out.

Key takeaways

• Ports are an economic engine. Ports account for roughly 26% of U.S. GDP (~$5.4T in activity); the AAPA’s 2023 data pegs the port/maritime industry at ~$2.9T of GDP and 21.8M jobs — one in eight American jobs. Over 99% of overseas cargo arrives by ship and 90%+ moves inland.
• The inland system is one integrated engine. Grain moves downstream while fertilizer moves upstream; 60%+ of U.S. grain exports move by barge. Disrupt the inland waterways and you break the food, energy, biofuel, and defense-logistics supply chains at once.
• It’s literally defense infrastructure. The Corps maintains 12,000+ miles of navigable channels moving 400M+ tons of military and commercial cargo annually; the 101st Airborne has run 10 barge movements since 2018 because barge is safer, cheaper, and more reliable than highway convoys.
• Rock Island is the case study. Rock Island Arsenal is the only active U.S. Army foundry and the Army’s Center of Excellence for Additive Manufacturing — scaling toward 10,000 military drones/month — sitting within two miles of a tri-modal P3 port. It’s the inland version of a strategic seaport.
• The ask: strengthen the SHIPS Act for the inland system. Dedicate funding (with operations budgets) for rural/small inland ports; create a state maritime infrastructure block-grant program; raise PIDP/MHP/Small Shipyard funding; and score BRAC reuse and P3s.

The inland waterway system as defense infrastructure

America’s ports account for roughly 26% of U.S. GDP — about $5.4 trillion in economic activity. More than 99% of overseas cargo enters by ship, and over 90% of it moves inland by truck, rail, or pipeline. The inland system isn’t a secondary network — it is the port system. Every direct port job generates 3–4 indirect jobs at wages 20% above the national average; in Texas, ports return $53 for every $1 invested.

Seventy percent of everything moving on America’s inland waterways is petroleum, farm products, coal, or raw materials — the commodities that feed the defense industrial base, power agriculture, and sustain the energy supply. More than 22% of domestic petroleum and 20% of the coal used for electricity transit these waterways; over 60% of U.S. grain exports move by barge. And it’s circular: energy embedded in fertilizer moves upstream to the farms, and that corn moves downstream as grain exports and as feedstock for biofuels that flow back into the energy supply. These aren’t three separate sectors — they’re one integrated system, and the Mississippi River is the engine.

On the defense side, the Army Corps maintains over 12,000 miles of navigable channels facilitating more than 400 million tons of military and commercial cargo annually. The 101st Airborne Division has conducted 10 barge movements since 2018 — moving over 1,000 trucks, trailers, and tons of equipment from Fort Campbell to Fort Johnson — because barge is safer, cheaper, and more reliable than highway convoys. Disrupt the inland waterways and you don’t just slow commerce; you simultaneously break the food, energy, biofuel, and defense-logistics pipelines.

The Rock Island corridor

Rock Island Arsenal is the only active U.S. Army foundry, the largest government-owned weapons manufacturing arsenal in the nation, and the Army’s Center of Excellence for Additive Manufacturing — scaling to produce 10,000 military drones per month. It sits within two miles of the Rock Island Regional Port District, a tri-modal (road/rail/river) facility operated for nearly two decades by Alter Logistics under a public-private partnership. The FY2026 defense bill directed over $186 million to Arsenal programs. The Corn Belt Ports partnership is building the P3 model that connects this defense-manufacturing hub to the agricultural and energy systems around it. The RIRPD is, in every meaningful sense, the inland version of a strategic seaport.

Fixing the SHIPS Act for the inland system

The Maritime Action Plan is the most serious blueprint for American maritime revitalization in 90 years, and the SHIPS Act is the vehicle that turns it into law — creating the Maritime Security Trust Fund that protects PIDP, Small Shipyard Grants, Title XI, and workforce development from the annual appropriations cycle. But four changes would make it dramatically more effective for the inland system:

1. Dedicate funding for rural and small inland ports — including operations budgets to hire staff and build business-development capacity, not just concrete and steel. PIDP is roughly five times oversubscribed, and rural ports shouldn’t have to compete head-to-head with billion-dollar coastal facilities for the same pool.
2. Create a state maritime infrastructure block-grant program to build baseline capacity across the system.
3. Increase overall funding for PIDP, the Marine Highway Program, and Small Shipyard Grants.
4. Add scoring preference for BRAC-site reuse and public-private partnerships.

A related fight worth watching: ENDAWS and the Missouri River

Why does a North Dakota water project matter to the inland waterway community? Because the lower Missouri operates on razor-thin navigation margins. The Eastern North Dakota Alternate Water Supply Project (ENDAWS) would divert up to 165 cubic feet per second of Missouri River water — via the McClusky Canal, a biota-treatment facility, and a buried pipeline — to the Sheyenne and Red Rivers, and it recently drew roughly $158 million in federal commitments. The standard 9-foot channel with 8.5-foot drafts makes per-bushel barge economics work at 9 feet but start to break below that, and upstream diversions — even individually small ones — cumulatively threaten that margin during drought. Missouri has been the most vocal opponent. The federal self-contradiction — funding upstream diversion while underfunding downstream navigation — is exactly the kind of whole-system blind spot the inland community has to keep flagging.

Related reading

• The SHIPS Act: A Maritime Workforce Strategy
• The MAP and the SHIPS Act
• Two Conferences Worth Your Time

Prosody helps inland river ports, cooperatives, and their public partners make the national-security-and-supply-chain case — and win the federal funding that follows. This is policy and market intelligence, not legal advice. Talk to us about your project →