The National Waterways Foundation has released a study that examines how cost benefit analysis is conducted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for inland waterway projects. Waterways Council Senior Vice President Deb Calhoun says the study compared how the Corps methods compares with other federal agencies.
She says how the cost benefits are figured by the Corps need to be brought into line and provide more realistic results for the new Congress and Administration to go by when considering infrastructure projects.
Calhoun says one major finding from the study showed that discount rates and interest rates have a profound effect on the economic viability of navigation projects but are not being used realistically by the Corps.
Calhoun says the study also indicated that the manner in which costs and benefits of navigation projects are presented by the Corps makes it virtually impossible to understand whether they are reasonable or not.
