Lock up inland allocations: Waterways Council wants government to fully match fuel-tax collections.(Domestic Shipping)

When the Army Corps of Engineers closed the McAlpine lock on the Ohio River near Louisville, Ky., for emergency repairs in August, the two-week shutdown disrupted supply chains and distribution networks of companies in the region. The 1,250 barges that move through the lock during a normal two-week period carry the equivalent of 80,000 truckloads of coal, petrochemicals, scrap metals and iron and steel products.

Because the corps provided two-and-a-half months notice of the shutdown, most of the affected companies were able to work around it by stockpiling material in advance. But when a scheduled two-week closing of the Greenup Lock and Dam on the Ohio River had to …