Barges · All locks
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.
How many barges can a towboat push through a federal lock? Across 24,818 commercial lockages between 31 August and 4 October 2026, the answer ranged from 1 to 44. The median tow pushed 4 barges. 12% pushed 15 or more.
Small tows are the most common
5,272 lockages carried a single barge and 5,220 carried two. Together they make up 42% of all commercial lockages. Six barges was the next most common size below 15, with 2,479 lockages, followed by four with 2,038. Twelve barges, with 1,278 lockages, was the next peak.
Fifteen is the big peak
2,834 lockages, 11% of the total, carried exactly 15 barges. That is the classic tow of three barges wide by five long. Above 15 the count collapses: only 147 lockages carried more, and only 3 carried more than 23. The largest three carried 28, 40 and 44.
It depends on the river
| River | Lockages | Median barges | Most barges |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gulf Intracoastal Waterway | 7,900 | 2 | 16 |
| Ohio River | 6,365 | 10 | 44 |
| Mississippi River | 3,744 | 8 | 15 |
| Illinois Waterway | 1,291 | 6 | 15 |
| McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River | 902 | 6 | 12 |
| Monongahela River | 715 | 6 | 19 |
| Black Warrior and Tombigbee Rivers | 565 | 8 | 9 |
| Tennessee River | 521 | 7 | 17 |
| Kanawha River | 207 | 9 | 11 |
The Ohio River had the largest typical tow, with a median of 10 barges, and the largest tow, at 44. On the Mississippi and Illinois, no lockage carried more than 15. The Gulf Intracoastal Waterway had the most commercial lockages and a median of 2. At Freshwater Bayou and on the St. Marys River, the median was a single barge. On the Columbia and Snake rivers it was 3.
What the count covers
A commercial lockage is one with at least one barge. A tow too long for the chamber and locked through in cuts still counts as one lockage, so the barge count is the whole tow. Rivers without locks are not in this data, so tows there are not counted.
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.