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Oct 22, 2015
Barge traffic came to a standstill on Monday as boats hit low water on the upper Mississippi River, forcing the U.S. Coast Guard to close a section to commercial traffic and begin emergency dredging operations through Wednesday.
According to Reuters, at least a dozen barge tows, were waiting to pass on Monday afternoon and the closure stopped the flow of soybean barges from the Midwest to export terminals on the Gulf Coast during peak harvest season.
Grain Insights on AgWeb reported this week the halt prevented many grain elevators north of the closure from receiving the empty barges they need to continue loading out newly harvested soybeans and corn.
According to STLToday, the Mississippi River has fallen 23 feet since early August and was at 1.7 feet on the gauge downtown on Tuesday.
