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Like clockwork, towboats slowly push barges on the Illinois river, carrying everything from salt and petroleum to the top commodities produced in the state, corn and soybeans.
拖船像时钟一样，准确缓慢地将驳船送到伊利诺斯河上，载着盐、石油，以及该州生产的顶级商品，即玉米和大豆。
This is the backbone of our economy.
这是我们的经济支柱。
We feed the world from right here.
我们在这里喂养全世界。
Tom Heinle oversees the U.S army corps of engineers facilities along the Illinois river including the Starved Rock Lock and Dam near Utica.
汤姆·海因勒(Tom Heinle)负责监督美国陆军工程兵部队在伊利诺伊河沿岸的设施，包括尤蒂卡附近的Starved Rock水闸和大坝。
Part of a system throughout the state, the national waterways foundation says moves over 83 million tons of freight annually worth over 13 billion dollars.
国家水路基金会表示，作为整个州运输系统的一部分，它每年运输超过8300万吨货物，价值超过130亿美元。
Using barges to transport goods on the rivers is efficient and environmentally friendly, reducing the need to use petroleum guzzling trucks.
使用驳船在河上运输货物既高效又环保，减少了对耗油量大的卡车的需求。
We can take a thousand tractor trailer trucks worth of commodities and put them on a single 15 barge tow.
我们可以用15艘驳船拖曳1000辆拖车的货物。
But the locks which rise and fall to allow barges to navigate at a consistent depth of the river were built nearly a century ago and are showing their age.
但是，水闸的涨落让驳船可以在恒定深度的河水中航行，这些水闸建于近一个世纪以前，现在它们已经很老旧了。
It is literally in places crumbling.
它们真的是摇摇欲坠。
You can see the concrete right in front of you deteriorating.
你可以看到面前的混凝土正在粉化。
On the vertical walls, you can see the the corner armor rusting.
在垂直的墙壁上，可以看到护角都生锈了。
Some of it's bent. it needs some help.
有些是弯曲的。它需要一些帮助。
They were built with a 50 year design life.
它们设计的使用寿命为50年。
Rodney Weinzer is a farmer in central Illinois where the waterways are key to getting crops to foreign buyers.
罗德尼·魏因是伊利诺斯州中部的一位农民，在那里，水路是将农作物运给外国买家的关键。
He also serves as the executive director of the Illinois corn growers association which advocates for improving the country's inland waterway system.
他还担任伊利诺斯州玉米种植者协会的执行董事，该协会倡导改善美国的内陆航道系统。
Exports are very important to Illinois in the U.S and infrastructure is what keeps us competitive with foreign competition.
在美国，出口对伊利诺斯州非常重要，基础设施让我们在国外竞争中保持竞争力。
The Weinzer says since most taxpayers rarely engage with this part of the country's infrastructure, the waterways often get overlooked.
魏因表示，由于大多数纳税人很少参与国家的这部分基础设施建设，所以水路经常被忽视。
So the public just never really sees it.
所以公众几乎从来不会关注它。
So it's much lower on the list of awareness of infrastructure that's really helped make our nation what it is today.
因此，在真正帮助我们国家发展至今天这个样子的基础设施方面，它受到的关注少之又少。
It needs some help to be reliable and safe.
它需要一些帮助才能变得安全可靠。
Previous funding allowed Heinle to oversee some upgrades to the Starved Rock Lock and Dam in 2020 which closed the river to all traffic for several months.
此前获得的一些资金让海因勒得以在2020年监督Starved Rock水闸和大坝的维修升级，因大坝问题，河流上的交通已经断停了几个月。
But Heinle says more work is needed up and down the system.
但海因勒表示，我们还需要对整个系统做更多维修。
And Weinzer understands it isn't cheap.
魏因知道这并不便宜。
Each one of these projects are several hundred million dollars.
每个项目都是几亿美元。
Which is why he hopes enough money is allocated to perform upgrades to two locks along the Illinois river in the greatest need of repair.
这就是为什么他希望能有足够的资金来升级伊利诺伊州河上最需要维修的两个水闸。
These are long-term investments.
这些都是长期投资。
Heinle says he already has a list of what he would do with an infusion of funding.
海因勒说，他已经准备好了资金到位后他要做的事项清单。
It's not that we have it spent before it gets here but we know exactly what our capabilities are and where the funding needs to go.
这并不是说我们在资金到位之前就已经把它花掉了，而是我们非常清楚地知道我们能做什么，以及资金需要花在什么地方。
President biden's infrastructure plan would dedicate 17 billion dollars to improve waterways ports and airports.
拜登总统的基础设施计划将拨款170亿美元用于改善水路、港口和机场。
A senate republican counteroffer also proposes spending billions to upgrade waterways.
一名参议院共和党人还提议花费数十亿美元来升级水道。
Efforts to advance legislation both parties can support continues in Washington.
华盛顿在继续推动两党都愿意支持的立法努力。
