Operators · Gulf Intracoastal Waterway
Blessey Marine: where its towboats locked through
55 boats made 643 lockages, 596 of them on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway.
Blessey Marine towboats, listed in Corps data as Blessey Marine Services, made 643 lockages between 3 September and 4 October 2026. Fifty-five boats worked 30 locks and pushed 990 barges, about 1.5 per lockage. That ranks seventh by lockages among the 436 operators in our archive, at about 12 lockages per boat. The ten locks these boats used most account for 581 of the 643 lockages, 90%.
Where the boats ran
The Gulf Intracoastal Waterway accounted for 596 lockages, 93% of the total. The Illinois Waterway had 31, the Mississippi River 7, the Ohio 5 and the Tennessee 4. Barges per lockage stayed near one at the two Brazos gates. At Brazos East Gate, 100 lockages moved 101 barges. At Brazos West Gate, 97 lockages moved 98. Just under half the lockages were upbound. 63% carried a hazardous-cargo flag.
| Lock | Lockages | Barges | Hours waited |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brazos East Gate | 100 | 101 | 718 |
| Colorado River East Lock | 99 | 120 | 219 |
| Brazos West Gate | 97 | 98 | 673 |
| Calcasieu Lock | 66 | 123 | 523 |
| Leland Bowman Lock | 59 | 112 | 194 |
Waits
The median lockage followed a wait of 1.3 hours. One in ten followed a wait longer than 12 hours. Across all 643 lockages the boats waited 3,041 hours, about 127 days, or 4.7 hours per lockage on average.
Three locks hold 63% of those hours. Brazos East Gate accounts for 718 hours over 100 lockages, Brazos West Gate 673 over 97 and Calcasieu Lock 523 over 66. Next come Colorado River East Lock with 219 hours over 99 lockages and Leland Bowman with 194 over 59. Waiting time is set by each lock and the queue ahead of it.
How the numbers are counted
Wait runs from a tow's arrival at the lock to the start of its lockage. Tows still waiting when we collected the data have no lockage yet, so these totals leave out waits in progress. Operators are matched from the Corps' 2022 vessel file and FCC licences, so a boat sold since may be listed under a previous operator.
Related
Sources: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Lock Performance Monitoring System, archived by Lock Wait; chamber dimensions and opening year from the BTS National Transportation Atlas; operators from the USACE Waterborne Transportation Lines (2022) and FCC ship licences. Wait is measured from arrival to start of lockage. How every number is defined.