Farmers in Illinois and all over America who have benefited from the growing global demand for U.S. soy are facing potential obstacles that could make shipping soybeans to our international customers less efficient and more costly.

As soybean farmers, we understand the export of our crop and the continued efforts to expand markets for soy around the world are vital to our livelihoods. The value of Illinois soybeans exported in 2010 was more than $2.4 billion.

So far, the process of moving soybeans from Illinois farm fields to the Gulf of Mexico for export has been somewhat simple. But everything ages and requires maintenance, and the U.S. transportation infrastructure is no different.