ALTON, ILL., LOCKS, DAM NOW OPEN

Barge traffic is moving smoothly again down the upper Mississippi River.

Barges are passing through the Melvin Price Locks and Dam again, Julie Ziino of the Army Corps of Engineers said Tuesday.

Repair work was completed on the 1,200-foot locks at Alton, Ill., last week. For the past month tows have had to use a 600-foot auxiliary lock, which took up to two hours for a full-sized tow to pass through.

"Normally it takes about 20 minutes for the same tow to pass through the 1,200-foot Melvin Price Locks and Dam," said Ziino.

"The full-size tow can pass through the 1,200-foot locks at one time," said Ziino. The tow has to be "broken" to go through the 600-foot locks. This has created a grid lock on the upper Mississippi the past month.

"We wanted to have the Melvin Price Locks ready by mid-September," said Ziino. "Things really get busy on the upper Mississippi then."

More than 80 million tons of commodities passed through the locks last year. About 60 percent of the Midwest grain passes through the locks.

Repairs to the Melvin Price Locks started Aug. 6. They were damaged Feb. 2 when a towboat and barges with about 22,000 tons rammed the lock gates, damaging the locks' two steel miter gates.

The lock was operable with the damaged gates, but there was a risk the gates would be further damaged. "This could have caused a severe national economic impact if the mechanisms failed during heavy grain shipments," said Ziino.

Working closely with the towing industry, the Corps of Engineers coordinated a controlled repair schedule of 30 days, with tows using the smaller, 600-foot locks.

"We worked two 10-hour shifts a day to hasten the repairs," said Ziino. The repairs were completed Friday, four days ahead of scheduled.

In mid-August as many as 15 tows were waiting to go down river, and 15 tows were waiting to go river, said Ziino.

The average delay for tows using the auxiliary chamber has been 18 hours, with total delays amounting to 9,700 hours.

"By last Friday, we were caught up with traffic," said Ziino. "And with Melvin Price Locks and Dams open, the expected increase this month poses no problems."

The repair work was accomplished by crews made up of Corps of Engineer employees from St. Louis, Rock Island and St. Paul districts.