When congress appropiated funds to construct the MRGO, was it a
"political payoff" to Louisiana congressmen for backing the St.
Lawrence Seaway project?
I am a retired steamship executive and could never fathom why the MRGO
was constructed in the first place.  It "saves" ocean going vessels a 4 hour
"short cut" to the Port of New Orleans from the Gulf of Mexico.  What
a useless waste of funds when it takes a vessel (depending on speed)
21 days from Amersterdam to New Orleans.  It would take that same
vessel 9-10 hours from the mouth of the Mississippi River to New
Orleans and 4 hours less using the MGRO. I would like some references
to your answer.  Thanks

---

Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 22 Jan 2006 11:33 PST

There's a pretty good summary of the history of "Mr-Go" at this link:


http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-4/113670456489340.xml


About a third of the way down the page is a section called "An Old
Idea", which re-caps the history of the channel.


Seems the advantage (or at least, the perceived advantage) had as much
to do with reliability of the channel for deep-draft vessel transport,
as it did with the shorter route.


Is this the sort of information you're looking for?


pafalafa-ga