Arkansas River barges slowed by shallow Mississippi
Barges on the Arkansas River system are facing draft restrictions that are limiting access because of historically low water in the Mississippi River below the Montgomery Point Lock and Dam in Desha County.
The lock isn’t closed but barge tows are limited, said Fred Taylor, project coordinator at Bruce Oakley, Inc; Bruce Oakley manages Jantran, Inc. — acquired by Bruce Oakley in 2011 — which operates vessels on the Arkansas and Mississippi Rivers. Jantran, Inc. is the largest tow service on the Arkansas River, said Bryan Day, executive director at the Port of Little Rock.
Taylor said barges are backing up on both sides of the lock. Montgomery Point is the first lock and dam that tow pilots must navigate headed north on the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System from the Mississippi River.
“Barges that are being loaded with grain all along the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System are waiting to get off the river … and onto the Mississippi,” Taylor said.
“You’ve got northbound cargoes like fertilizer and other bulk commercial, industrial commodities trying to come up, so they’re in a little holding pattern right there, which is not healthy for any transportation system to hold for a matter of a week, let alone days, so that’s the challenge.”
Day sent an email to the Port of Little Rock board of directors Tuesday morning notifying them that the Mississippi River is so low that it would be difficult for larger barge loads to pass through the Montgomery Point Lock and Dam.
“Last year, the Mississippi dropped and it never got to the point where you couldn’t get on the Arkansas [River] but it was close, and the Mississippi River had to change a lot about how the tows flowed … it limited the number of barges,” Day said.
“Then we got notice last week that barges trying to push through from the Mississippi [River] to the Arkansas [River] were getting hung up,” he said.
A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers navigation notice on Friday warned tow pilots the navigation channel on the Arkansas River at the lock and dam was less than 9 feet deep, less than 100 feet wide and not in a straight line.
The Arkansas River is managed by 18 locks and dams to keep water at a certain level so the river can draft nine-foot barges, Day said.
“You could load a lighter barge and get it through there, but your typical ninefoot loaded barge would have trouble getting through there with the way it is right now,” Taylor said.
Crews arrived on Sunday to begin using a clamshell dredge to clean out certain high spots within a roughly half-mile stretch of the river downstream from Montgomery Point to make it more passable for boats and barge traffic, said Jay Townsend, Public Affairs chief at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Little Rock District.
“Much of the larger barge traffic is having to stop until we can get that area dredged out,” Townsend said.
A Corps navigation notice on Tuesday said another dredge is expected to arrive and start work by Saturday and to complete dredging below the lock and dam back to a 9-foot depth for navigators by Oct. 28.
But a survey of the bottom of the river is needed so the vessel can get into the right spot, “so without that survey, I don’t know how long [it will take] but it’s not going to be a long-term thing,” Townsend said.
“What can get us, is if the Mississippi River levels continue to drop, so will the levels between the Montgomery Point Lock and Dam and the Mississippi, meaning we may need to continue dredging, but that’s speculative at this point.”
Because of the low Mississippi River, the Corps can guarantee only a 7-foot draft to prevent vessels from bumping against the bottom of the river, Townsend said.
“We’ll go in there and dredge those high spots back to nine feet and traffic will start to move back and forth, but that’s pending if anything else happens,” he said.
The Corps advised mariners that the 7-foot draft restriction recommended in the previous navigation notice on Friday is still in effect.
“As a result, mariners with vessels and/or tows drafting greater than 7-ft. are advised to await guidance from Montgomery Point Lock and Dam Operators before attempting to transit the area and to expect significant delays,” per the notice on Friday.
“Also, mariners with over 7-ft. draft should plan to limit tows to 1-barge wide and no longer than 3-barges long OR no greater than 70-ft. in width and 1-barge long as they transit the area,” the notice said.
“Typically, a tow on the Arkansas [River] is 15 barges and you’re not going to be able to do that, so it has the potential to have a pretty significant impact on the industries on the Arkansas coming up or coming down. We have some users that depend heavily on the river and it’s going to delay the delivery of resources and supplies.”
“It’s a pretty significant issue that we’re going to have to figure out,” Day said.
“We have some users that depend heavily on the river and it’s going to delay the delivery of resources and supplies.”
— Bryan Day, executive director at the Port of Little Rock