American Currents

ACBL’s Daily River Conditions

Heatwave Impacts to Industry – A significant Heatwave is working across the Mississippi Valley this week. Expect minor delays on the Upper Miss, St. Louis through the Gulf, and on the Ohio River to tow-building, repair and cleaning work, and other manual barging activities during the afternoon-hours. If you are working outside, please be safe and stay hydrated!

Cannelton Lock Main Chamber Closure (OR 720) – Main Chamber will close for repairs July 6th through November 11th. Traffic will pass through the Auxiliary chamber, requiring two cuts for most tows. Expect delays similar to the recent Belleville Lock closure (18-36 Hr).

Cheatham Lock Closure (CR 149) – Complete closure began as planned Monday, May 16th and will run through August 5th with 5 openings scheduled to pass traffic. Click here for the closure/opening schedule. Expect six 2-week time periods with 11 days of closure followed by 3 days of unrestricted operation. Delays may climb to 5-10 days depending on arrival in the lock queue and disrupt service to/from Nashville. Click Here for ACBL’s Commercial Update to our Customers impacted by this closure.

Pickwick Lock Main Chamber Closure (TR 206) – During a routine inspection, a potential structural issue was found in the Main Chamber and as a result the chamber is closed to navigation effective immediately (May 24th). Auxilliary chamber remains available for transit and can run 9-regulation barges. This issue is driving minimal delay to transit.

Brandon Road Lock Restriction and Closure 2022 (IR 286) -Repair Closures begin May 9th, and will carry through September 8th. First phase is a Daytime hour closure, with a 70’ width restriction when lock is open nightly. August 15th thru September 4th will see a Full Closure. We are currently seeing approx. 1-hrs delay and had 1 tow waiting this morning. Click Here for ACBL’s Commercial Update to our Customers impacted by the full closure this August.

Norrell Lock (AK 10) – Projecting intermittent closures for repairs and a 70′ width restriction starting June 1st, 2022 thru September 19th with a full closure August 1st thru 10th. Intermittent closures will resume September 30th thru January 1st, 2023, with a full closure September 30th thru October 9th.

Lower Miss Low Water Conditions – Due to falling river levels, industry aligned on 07/05 to reduce SBD drafts St. Louis through the Gulf to 11′ and Rosedale through the Gulf to 11’6″. NBD drafts reduced to 10’6″. In conjunction, tows are restricted to 7-widths and depending on horsepower, this is resulting in a 12-15% reduction in tow size.

Lower Miss River Closure (LM 336) – USACE Bank Grading Unit is working in the vicinity of mile 336.8 LMR left descending bank beginning 7/7/22 through 8/7/22. The river will be closed to S/B traffic during the hours of 07:00 through 17:00 daily.

Harahan Daily Closure (LM 107) – Daily closure started today, July 7th, until approximately July 20th for power line work. One way traffic from 04:00 – 07:00. Complete closure from 07:00-13:00. One way traffic from 13:00-16:00.

Morley Railroad Bridge Closure (PA 56) – July 6th the bridge was unable to open for approximately 12 hours driving delays.

Bayou Sorrel Daytime Closures (PA 37) – Since March 17th, Bayou Sorrel has a planned closure 06:30 – 17:00 Monday through Thursday for repairs. Seeing 4 hrs of delay due to work on the Bayou Sorrel Bridge located just above the lock. As of this morning, there were 4 tows in queue. Additionally, the lock resumed normal operations on May 6th, but is planning to resume the closure on July 11th. Projected to last till Feb 28th, 2023.

Calcasieu Lock Closure (WC 239) – Daylight Closures 0700 – 1800 Mon – Thurs March 22nd through August 25th. Expect 24-36 hrs delay and potentially more pending ability to clear the backlog daily.

Brazzos Floodgates (WC 401) – Daylight Closures 07:30 – 17:00 Mon – Fri and has been extended until July 29th. Expect 24-36 hrs delay.

Industry Manpower Issues – The Inland Maritime Industry continues seeing major shortages of manpower. This is directly impacting the ability to crew towboats. As a result, expect 1-2 day delays in boat timings throughout the system, increasing overall barge transits in kind. ACBL has taken measures to increase our workforce throughout the system. The safety of our Mariners is our highest operating priority. Accordingly, ACBL has implemented measures and training programs to keep all of our team members safe.