Clean Technica
By Jennifer Sensiba
June 22, 2021
As I continued my first trip for my Untold EV & Cleantech Stories project, I came across something I never thought I’d find: a whole system of highways I didn’t know about. Unlike the Interstate I was driving on, this set of highways has no pavement, but it has the potential to both relieve traffic from regular highways and reduce transportation-related pollution. What I’m talking about is the US Marine Highway System, and it was the last thing I expected to see driving in Oklahoma and Arkansas along I-40. The first sign of it was when we crossed the Arkansas River near Webbers Falls. The sign read: “McClellan Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System – Marine Highway M40.” I took this screenshot from Google Street View because taking pictures while driving is dangerous. The idea of a marine highway so far from the ocean seemed unusual, but I had previously heard of people with house boats traveling the Great Loop route that surrounds the eastern United States, so the idea of marine traffic going so far inland wasn’t totally alien to me. To encounter something called a marine highway in Oklahoma was still a surprise, though. When we came across signage for the M-55 at the Mississippi River and the M-65 in Tennessee, we knew this was probably something worth looking up.
View the full article: CleanTechnica.com
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