Brief: America’s Working Waterways — Post IV: The Upper Mississippi River
So what
On the Upper Mississippi, the 9-foot channel is not the capacity number that matters. Usable draft, lock time, winter ice, and the St. Louis harbor decide what grain actually moves.
Key takeaways
· The working corridor from the Twin Cities to Lock 27 is about 670 river miles. It holds 27 locks in service.
· Twenty-three of those chambers are 600 feet. A 15-barge tow is about 1,200 feet. Double lockage turns hours into freight and into basis.
· Only three 1,200-foot chambers sit on this stretch: Lock 19 at Keokuk, Melvin Price at Alton, and Lock 27 at Granite City.
· Nine feet is the ceiling. Six inches off every barge in a 15-barge tow leaves about 1,600 tons on the bank.
· The north closes for ice. The south closes for maintenance. Move grain before freeze-up. Position fertilizer before spring.
· St. Louis harbor is where 15-barge tows are rebuilt for the open river and where Upper Mississippi, Illinois, and Missouri cargo compete for barges and fleet room. A jam there is a Twin Cities and Quad Cities problem.
· The working towns are the Twin Cities, Winona, La Crosse, Dubuque, the Quad Cities, Burlington, Quincy, Alton, and St. Louis. Those are the elevator, terminal, and fleeting points that set origin bids.
Who should read the full piece
Country elevator and river-terminal managers in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri. Merchandisers who bid against Gulf barge freight. Fertilizer distributors moving product north. Policy and operations readers watching Lock 25 and NESP. Inland waterway logistics personnel, anyone interested in learning more about grain moves by water
Links
Read Full post: https://www.grainguyfifty.com/post/america-s-working-waterways-post-iv-the-upper-mississippi-river
See Glossary: https://www.grainguyfifty.com/post/the-gg50-america-s-working-waterway-vocabulary-glossary-of-terms
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Grain Guy fifty
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