The efficiency of barge transportation allows United States’ farmers products to be competitive in the world marketplace. By upgrading our Inland Waterway Infrastructure, our farmers’ products can continue to compete with other world markets. Barge Lines are the only direct contributors to the IWTF. Seventy percent of our locks are beyond their fifty-year design life span. Redundancy is needed on the Upper Mississippi and Illinois river locks, as there are only one chamber on all locks on the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rives above Grafton, IL.