barge movement

[KY_TOBDirt]

received this yesterday afternoon from ADM..

Dear valued customer,

River conditions are starting to improve as water levels start to decline. However, I would like to pass along that this high water event has caused longer lasting complications. Although we should have capability to load in the next few days the local fleets are struggling taking loads back to the fleets and quite frankly are running out of permitted space to fleet barges. The Smithland lock and dam has been closed and will remain closed until March 12th. With the lock closure all barge traffic on the Ohio River is stopped. Some boats are trapped on the river and other are waiting for the lock to open to start into the river. So even if we can load barges we will be limited to fleet space as well as available empties that will not be accessible until river logistics start to move again sometime next week. Combine these problems with issues on the Illinois River along with restricted tow sizes going to the gulf out of Cairo and you can start to imagine that this may be a 45 to 60 day logistics problem.

We will do everything we can to get our facilities up and operating soon. Please continue to communicate with the Evansville office for updates on receiving hours.

I apologize for the inconvenience and will be doing all that we can to get facilities back open and operating.

Thank You,

[elcheapo]

I will admit, I do not know that much about the
River system.
What is the problem (s) ?
Flooding ?
Sitting in of the rivers ?
Locks older, needing repair , or the size
Of barge changed, but lock didn't ?

On the locks, this is just my ""first thing out of
My mouth"" opinion, since I haven't read up on
It.
It would seem to me that things would be repaired
Or upgraded. I do not know how the funding works
But in this instance, a toll system might be ok,
At least to supplement funding.
Why not just build a new one next to the old one ?
Then you could double flow, and if one goes down
You have another one. Granted you need a
"Straight shot" to get into the lock, would be hard to
Make a turn.
It would seem with the conservation we would
Have less silt, but even with that in place things
Add up.

[KY_TOBDirt]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olmsted_Locks_and_Dam

elcheapo, some reading material for you..

flooding is the biggest problem now..
plus being out of room to stage loaded freight..

[KY_TOBDirt]

cheapO

click on the highlighted lock 52 and 53 locks, will give you more info on the two locks.

[elcheapo]

Thank you KY for the link...and I thought I was
Slow !!

I could make a political statement, but for a change
I'm going to hold my tongue. This should have
Been done long time ago.

[JimMeade]

The entire infrastructure problem is one of deferred maintenance and it continues to creep up on us.  Why are we not surprised that North Dakota can rail soybeans to the west coast rather than float them to the Gulf?  

Especially on the Mississippi with soybeans, there is a good market the end of November/first of December (depending on how far north or south you are) known as the River Close market.  Often a pop in prices.  Miss it and you lose a marketing option until River Open.  It's often worth it to sell into the River Close market and not hold beans over the winter (not true every year, but many years).  

[Hobbyfarmer]

Do you know how far to a barge it is from north Dakota?