Metadata
The numbers
What every figure on this site counts, where it comes from and how it is calculated. The counts below are live, from the build of ….
What the archive holds
| Count | Value | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Locks | Every lock in the Corps' lock list (lookups/lock_numbers), one per river and lock number | |
| Locks with traffic | Locks with at least one lockage in the archive. The rest are closed, seasonal or report nothing. | |
| Lockages | Distinct lockages from to , all vessels | |
| Commercial lockages | Lockages with at least one barge. Wait statistics use these. | |
| Barges | Sum of barges across all lockages | |
| Vessels | Distinct Corps vessel numbers seen | |
| Operators | Distinct companies matched to at least one commercial lockage | |
| Operator match | Share of commercial lockages whose vessel was matched to an operator | |
| Status snapshots | 15-minute lock status reports kept since 4 October 2026 | |
| Raw responses | Files in the archive, one per request, never rewritten |
Definitions
- Lockage
- One vessel or tow passing through a lock, identified by lock, vessel number and arrival time. It may appear in up to thirty daily downloads; it is counted once.
- Cut
- Part of a tow too long for the chamber. A tow locked through in two cuts is one lockage. This build folded split tows.
- Commercial lockage
- A lockage with one or more barges. Recreational boats, light towboats and government vessels are excluded from wait statistics.
- Wait
- Start of lockage minus arrival at the lock, in hours. Our measure, not the Corps' published delay. Values below zero or over 14 days are treated as reporting errors ( in this build).
- Median wait
- Half of commercial tows waited less, half waited more. It ignores the few extreme waits that would distort an average.
- 90th percentile
- One tow in ten waited longer than this. Shown as the right end of each wait bar.
- Hours waited
- Sum of every commercial tow's wait. A measure of total time lost at a lock or by a company's boats.
- Tows waiting now
- The Corps'
totalPendingArrivalsfrom the latest 15-minute status report. - 4-hour average delay
- The Corps' own
average4HourDelay, in minutes, reported with each status. - Stoppage
- The Corps reports an active stall or stoppage at the lock.
- Upbound, downbound
- Direction of travel as the Corps records it: upbound is against the current.
- Hazardous cargo
- The Corps' hazard flag on a lockage. It does not say what the cargo is.
- Operator
- The company that operates the towboat, from the Corps' Waterborne Transportation Lines file (2022) or FCC ship licences ( vessels), matched on the Coast Guard official number. Not the owner of the cargo.
- River mile
- Distance along the waterway as the Corps measures it, from the BTS National Transportation Atlas.
By waterway
How the counts are made
- Rows received
- rows across every traffic download, before de-duplication.
- Seen more than once
- lockages appeared in two or more downloads, because each covers a rolling thirty days.
- Coordinates corrected
- status records had latitude and longitude swapped by the source; the builder corrects them.
- Times
- Local lock time as reported, with the zone label the Corps gives (CST, EST, PST). Not adjusted for daylight saving.
What the numbers cannot tell you
- Before the archive. Lockages begin about 31 August 2026 and status on 4 October 2026. A zero before then means we were not recording.
- The most recent days. A tow still waiting when the data was collected has no lockage yet, so the latest days understate waits until those tows lock through.
- Cargo. Commodity, shipper and destination for each lockage are confidential under 33 CFR 209.320. Only the hazard flag is public.
- Current ownership. Operator names reflect the 2022 vessel file and FCC licences; boats sold since may show the earlier operator.
Sources and terms
| Source | Used for | Refreshed |
|---|---|---|
| U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Lock Performance Monitoring System | Lockages, status, lock list | Status every 15 minutes; traffic daily |
| BTS National Transportation Atlas, Waterway Locks | Location, river mile, chamber size, lift, year opened | Loaded 5 October 2026 |
| USACE Waterborne Transportation Lines, CY2022 | Vessel operator | Loaded 4 October 2026 |
| FCC Universal Licensing System, ship licences | Vessel operator where the Corps file has none | Loaded 4 October 2026 |
All four are U.S. government publications. Lock Wait is not affiliated with or endorsed by any of these agencies.
Archive contains 192 lock records; 173 have recorded traffic. Data built 2026-10-05T14:17:12Z. Coverage varies by lock.