Articles

Article directory

• Ballard Locks: 1,101 lockages in 30 days — The fifth-busiest federal lock by lockages. Commercial tows waited a median of 20 minutes.
• Belleville Locks and Dam: big tows, short waits — The median tow here pushed 12 barges and still started locking within half an hour.
• Calcasieu Lock: five-hour waits for two-barge tows — Only one lock handled more lockages, and only two kept tows waiting longer.
• Chain of Rocks Lock 27: most tows wait, none wait long — Two in three tows waited more than an hour. The longest wait was 10.6 hours.
• Chicago Lock: 2,845 lockages and 8 barges — No federal lock locked through more often. Almost none of it was freight.
• Kentucky Lock: why tows wait four days — The typical commercial tow waited 99 hours here. No other federal lock comes close.
• Markland Locks and Dam: one lockage in five carries no barges — Pleasure boats, light towboats and government vessels made 21% of the lockages here. The busiest day was Labor Day.
• McAlpine Locks and Dam: 14-barge tows, one-minute waits — McAlpine moved the fifth most barges of 173 locks. Only 7% of tows waited more than an hour.
• Mel Price Lock and Dam: 44% of tows wait over an hour — The typical tow waited 53 minutes. That is the 20th longest median wait of 173 locks, and nobody waited half a day.
• Montgomery Lock and Dam: small tows, local boats — The median tow here pushed 4 barges, and four boats from one company made a fifth of the commercial lockages.
• Olmsted Locks and Dam: more barges than any other lock — 5,301 barges passed through. Early September waits ran past 11 hours, and on 5 October the lock went to one chamber.
• American Commercial Barge Line: where its towboats locked through — 46 boats made 944 lockages at 79 federal locks in 33 days.
• Blessey Marine: where its towboats locked through — 55 boats made 643 lockages, 596 of them on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway.
• Canal Barge Company: where its towboats locked through — 27 boats made 456 lockages, 258 of them on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway.
• Ingram Barge Company: where its towboats locked through — 74 boats made 1,869 lockages, more than any other operator in our archive.
• Kirby Inland Marine: where its towboats locked through — 119 boats made 1,667 lockages, 877 of them on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway.
• Parker Towing: 406 lockages at 22 federal locks — Fourteen boats moved 3,044 barges in 33 days, four lockages in five on the Black Warrior and Tombigbee rivers.
• Mississippi River barge traffic: 30,242 barges through 28 locks — Barge counts fall lock by lock going north, and Lock and Dam 25 holds the longest waits.
• Ohio River locks: all 21, Emsworth to Olmsted — At 16 of the 19 working locks, the typical tow waited under an hour. Three hold two thirds of the river's waiting time.
• How a lock queue works: arrival, precedence and cuts — First come, first locked, with three set exceptions. The typical commercial tow waited 33 minutes.
• How many barges can a towboat push? 24,818 lockages counted — The median towboat at a federal lock pushed 4 barges. The largest pushed 44, on the Ohio River.