The Great Lakes Region office accomplishes MARAD programs for the region, that consists of a 16-state territory including the eight states surrounding the Great Lakes plus eight inland waterway states of the Midwest, consistent with policy and guidance from the Maritime Administration headquarters.

Major Activities

• Region Office

   

  • Centrally located within the Great Lakes area Schaumburg, IL

  • Responsible for implementing MARAD’s mission through the following Great Lakes and inland waterways programs:

• Port and maritime security

• Port security grants

• Marine Transportation System

• Port and waterway planning

• Intermodal planning, including ferry services

• Environmental regulation review

• Port conveyance

• Merchant vessel employment information

• Harbor dredging technical assistance

• Shipboard fire fighting training

• Liaison between private enterprise and government (local, state, and federal)

• Ship finance and shipyard promotion

• Inland Waterways Office - St. Louis, MO

   

  • Acts as a critical information link for private industry and governmental entities that have an interest in the nation’s vast inland waterway transport system

   

• Fire Fighting Training Center - Swanton, OH

   

  • Approved by the U.S. Coast Guard to meet requirements for merchant seamen in obtaining original or upgrades of a Merchant Marine License

  • Classroom study and field exercises include actual fire fighting in ship-like structures

Working Issues

• Ballast water introduction of non-indigenous species of plants and aquatic organisms

• Essential replacement of the USCG icebreaker Mackinaw

• Crucial construction of a second Poe-sized lock at Sault Saint Marie

• Advancement of the Great Lakes Navigation System Study to the feasibility stage

• Determine and implement additional security measures for the maritime system

• Upper Mississippi River/Illinois Waterway Navigation Study

• Missouri River Master Control Manual Revision

Successes

• Charter member of the Great Lakes Waterways Management Forum

• Charter member of the state and federal co-chaired Great Lakes Dredging Team

• Fire fighting training for mariners that includes classroom instruction and hands-on fire suppression in a simulator (6000 trained over a 20-year period)

• Special training for municipal firemen in port security/incidence response for fires aboard dockside ships

• Assisted in designing and funding construction of an environmentally sensitive prototype mooring buoy for use by towboats to safely tie off close to a lock

• Assisted in conveyance of Federal property to Tri-City Regional Port District

• Publication of U.S. Great Lakes Merchant Seaman Employment Fact Sheet

• Publication of booklet, U.S.-Flag/Seaway-Size Vessels, Domestic Great Lakes to Saltwater Ports Cargo Trade

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