The mighty Ohio River has long been a Midwest freight superhighway, reliably moving bulk materials and ag products downbound and upbound between endpoints in Cairo, IL, and Pittsburgh, PA, through hundreds of public and private ports and terminals.
The river - the largest portion of Marine Highway Route M-70 - is showing its age though, with its 20 locks and dams in need of critical improvements. About 80% are more than 50 years old, and many are approaching or past their design life. These conditions reduce system efficiency, according to an Ohio state maritime development report.
Ohio River Commission
Last year, Ohio policymakers created the Ohio River Commission to advocate for the river and help implement the Ohio Maritime Plan, a policy guide for the state’s maritime transport network.
Taylor Abbott, the first executive director of the Commission, said the Commission works alongside terminal operators and public and private partners to identify infrastructure needs, strengthen multimodal connections, improve competitiveness, and position strategic projects for future investment.
“The Ohio River is a powerful economic asset and also contains tremendous, untapped potential. By building and maintaining strong partnerships, stakeholders in the region can take a more coordinated approach to addressing challenges while identifying new opportunities for growth,” Abbott said. “The Commission is working to develop a comprehensive understanding of Ohio’s river assets, including ports, terminals, manufacturers, industrial sites, workforce resources, transportation infrastructure, and developable properties – allowing us to better support workforce development and tourism, identify investment opportunities, prioritize infrastructure improvements, and inform policy decisions.”
Abbott said some key opportunities include expanding advanced manufacturing, energy, agriculture, and warehousing, as well as the redevelopment of underutilized riverfront industrial sites — all while strengthening freight connections throughout the region.
He acknowledged the need to modernize infrastructure which requires sustained investment in major rehabilitation, long-term replacement of locks and dams, gate and machinery replacement, electrical and control system upgrades, preventive maintenance, and backup capacity.
“Addressing these challenges will require sustained investment, strategic planning, and collaboration among multiple states, federal agencies, and private industry. Modernizing these facilities is not simply a maritime issue,” Abbott said. “It’s a matter of national economic competitiveness, infrastructure resilience, and supply chain security.”
In terms of supply chain resiliency, Ohio’s inland waterways provide an additional transportation option when other avenues experience congestion or disruption. Barges can move tremendous volumes of freight efficiently while reducing pressure on highways, he said.
Abbott cited movements of oversized equipment for the Brent Spence Bridge Corridor and the Shell Petrochemicals Complex in Pennsylvania as demonstrating the river’s unmatched ability to transport heavy project cargo that would be extremely difficult or disruptive to move entirely by highway.
“Long-term success will require dependable cargo volumes in both directions, appropriate container-handling facilities, reliable lock operations, competitive pricing, and close coordination among railroads, trucking companies, ocean carriers, and Gulf Coast ports,” he said.
Paducah-McCracken County Riverport Authority
By any measure, Paducah, KY should be considered one of the most notable river cities in the United States. The Ohio River joins the Tennessee River right off S. 3rd Street downtown, and the Cumberland River enters the Ohio just upstream. Forty miles downstream, the Ohio empties into the Mississippi River.
It’s a unique geographic position that the Paducah-McCracken County Riverport Authority uses to its advantage. Twenty-three barge companies have operating or corporate headquarters in the region. And there are five major inland shipyards that service a large chunk of the nation’s inland river towboats and barge fleets.
But it’s a succession of unprecedented energy-related project announcements in 2026 that has the Riverport Authority positioned for big things in the next few years.
In late July, the US Department of Energy (DOE) announced a partnership with Brookfield, NextEra Energy, Big Rivers Electric Power Corporation, Jackson Purchase Energy Cooperative, and Paducah Power System to redevelop portions of DOE’s former Gaseous Diffusion Plant (GDP) into a $100 billion data center campus.
Last year, the DOE said it had signed a lease with General Matter to reuse a 100-acre GDP parcel for a new private-sector domestic uranium enrichment facility.
In March, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear reported Global Laser Enrichment will develop the $1.8 billion Paducah Laser Enrichment Facility (PLEF) to re-enrich depleted uranium.
Jimmie Garrett, the Riverport’s executive director, said to support these projects and other industrial development, the Riverport Authority is building the Riverport West facility eight nautical miles downstream from its current Riverport East facility. The Riverport West project will be funded in part by a $24 million BUILD grant secured earlier this year.
“Riverport East is at capacity; we really don’t have any more land to expand on,” Garrett said. “The decision was made to expand out into the west side of the county and call it Riverport West.”
The massive energy projects on tap could bring extraordinary growth he said, but bulk materials - sand, limestone aggregate, fertilizer, petroleum coke - still are critical freight for the Riverport.
“We are excited about the DOE announcements, but those materials and cargo form the cornerstone of our daily operations,” Garrett said.
Ports of Indiana - Mt. Vernon & Jeffersonville, IN
The Ports of Indiana operates two ports on the Ohio River: one in Mt. Vernon, IN and the other in Jeffersonville, IN, on the north side of the river from Louisville, KY. Indiana’s river ports have announced a series of substantial investments in the past year.
Jody Peacock, chief executive officer of the Ports of Indiana, said Indiana’s facilities are garnering grant money because of the return on investment.
“There’s a powerful maritime highway that moves millions of tons of freight, but it’s largely out of sight out of mind and if you look at the percentage of trade that moves by water it’s a very small percent,” said Peacock. “The fact that you can put 300 tons on a river floated across the country if you will or from the Gulf to Pittsburgh, stop at any port along the way on the inland river system is a powerhouse way to do it.”
“If you’re trying to move a large tank or a generator or something a wind turbine across the country, you’re going to have to have overweight truck permits and escorts to go across multiple states, but when you can move heavy cargoes right into the heartland of the country by water that really shows the efficiency...”
A quick tally of current investments in Indiana’s Ohio River ports - $32 million expansion at Jeffersonville to add a 300-ton crane, $16 million railyard development in Mt. Vernon as well as a $47 million upgrade there by Consolidated Grain and Barge Co. to increase grain and soybean handling capacity.
The backbone is infrastructure, Peacock said.
“Maintaining our inland waterways and infrastructure is critical to the future success and even maintenance of our existing shipping system. The challenge we have is that roughly 80% of the locks and dams in the United States have exceeded their 50-year design life, and that’s a major problem. We have 100-year-old locks, and it’s hard to base an entire shipping industry on that type of structure,” he said. “We would love to see the focus, the reinvestment, the commitment to upgrading, modernizing maritime structure to match the other modes because it provides tremendous value, but often times it doesn’t get attention in funding until there’s a major collapse or a lock has been shut down. Let’s deal with this as preemptive maintenance and not wait for disaster.”
Central Ohio River Business Association (CORBA)
CORBA is a trade association representing local businesses that rely on the Ohio River in the tri-state region. Headquartered in Cincinnati, CORBA membership consists of a cross-section of maritime businesses from barge fleeting companies to local port authorities to terminal operators.
Executive Director Eric Thomas said geography is the Central Ohio River region’s not-so-secret weapon.
“Location, location, location… The Ports of Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky (PCNK) is ideally situated in the heartland of the U.S. PCNK is within a one-day drive of 55 percent of the population of the U.S., and 45 percent or more of the country’s manufacturers. The region is connected to these by major interstate connections via I-71, I-74, and I-75, the Ohio River, and regional airports, including CVG, which is fast becoming a leading freight airport in the country. These, obviously, create great opportunities for the region. Some challenges relative to “port” operations include limited property along the Ohio River for further port development activities, and declining demand for coal due to shuttering power plants.”
Thomas acknowledges the wide range of factors that have hindered the development of Container-on-Barge (COB) service, but he still sees merit in it.
“With all the pressure on the supply chains, such as highway and rail congestion, and truck driver shortages, the prospect of seeing some freight move to a COB solution is still within reason,” Thomas said. “I believe we will still need to see technological advancements, however, to address the concerns for speed of delivery. Also, COB solutions will be quite regional in nature. COB solutions, obviously, will only develop in areas where there are navigable, barge-served waterways.”
Thomas said agricultural goods, including grains and fertilizers, along with other bulk commodities, including aggregates, metal-related goods, and chemicals, continue to be bright spots for transportation on inland river systems, including the Ohio River. But, like other Ohio River users, Thomas sees infrastructure improvements as a critical priority.
“The Ohio River is a part of an interconnected inland river system. A weakness anywhere in the system has an effect on the entire system,” he said. “Aging locks and dams exist throughout, and CORBA remains focused on a systemwide approach to strategic investments that ensures optimization and efficiency throughout the entire system.”
