Barge traffic back to normal; lock closures loom
Barge traffic is getting back to normal on the lower Mississippi River for what's typically a slower time of the year anyway. 'The water levels are...
Barge traffic is getting back to normal on the lower Mississippi River for what's typically a slower time of the year anyway. 'The water levels are back up to normal south of Cairo versus where it was in September and October,' Tom Torretti, of Consolidated Grain & Barge Co., told FarmWeek at the Illinois Fertilizer and Chemical Association's (IFCA) annual convention in Peoria in mid-January. 'The low water issue last year was the worst we'd seen since 1988.' The low water issues, which Toretti said made parts of the mighty river temporarily look like a creek, snarled barge traffic and caused freight rates to skyrocket in 2022.