Cargo Business Newswire

Thursday, August 7, 2014

Army Corps to clear path for barges on the Mississippi

The Army Corps of Engineers is leading a massive effort to remove silt and sand deposits in the bed of the Mississippi River in Minnesota, clearing the way for hundreds of commercial barges hauling millions of dollars of cargo to make their way to downstream markets.

The sediment, left behind by flooding from heavy seasonal showers, has delayed shipments up and down the river, according to Steve Tapp of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Tapp said this year's work — and the barge backup — is the worst in his 25 years of cleanups.

The corps used four dredges to churn up huge deposits near the southern Minnesota towns of Winona and Wabasha, vacuuming them up and spewing them onto boats to be carried to shore.

The delays have extended close to the grain harvesting season, a time when barges transport wheat, soybeans and corn exports from the Midwest down to the Gulf Coast.

"We are looking at a very large grain crop. That has got people on pins and needles," said Jerry Fruin, a retired economics professor from the University of Minnesota.

A harsh winter kept Lake Pepin frozen into the start of the 2014 shipping season, blocking Mississippi traffic, and then heavy rains in April, June and July raised the river too high for some locks, dams and dredging equipment to operate.

As the waters receded, they dropped shoals of sediment throughout the river.

"When the water dropped out, it dropped out fast. It left a lot of problems with us," Tapp said.

For more of the The Republic story: therepublic.com

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