Crews digging rock pinnacles; blasting on hold

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is delaying the use of explosives to blast free treacherous rock pinnacles on the Mississippi River in Southern Illinois because crews are having so much success removing the formations with excavating machinery, officials said Tuesday.

The corps has hired contractors to use explosives to remove the pinnacles that stretch about six miles near Thebes, Ill. The river's level is so low in the area between St. Louis and Cairo, Ill., that barge traffic is threatened.

Blasting was scheduled to begin Tuesday but corps spokesman Mike Petersen said excavation barges were removing so much rock that the explosions are on hold for now.

"It's like a backhoe on steroids," Petersen said as he watched the excavation from the shore. "It reaches down and basically scoops rock out of the river. It's just spooning it out right now."

The river was closed for a six-mile stretch from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday and Tuesday while crews removed the rocks.

On Monday there were eight southbound tow boats and five northbound tows waiting when the river reopened, said Dan Overbey, executive director of SEMO Port.

With the tows only going about 5 mph and that area of the river tricky to navigate, it is time consuming to get each boat through, he said.

Tuesday evening, officials expected about a dozen tows waiting to head south -- and several northbound boats as well -- when the river opened at 10 p.m.

"If they have time, they'll let some of the northbound ones go, but if not, they'll let some of the northbound ones stack up and wait until tomorrow night. They might go south one night and north the next," Overbey said.

Tow operators are communicating with the Coast Guard via radios and cellphones when they approach the closure, he said.

"It's almost like a road when you cut it down to one-way traffic," he said.

The area is closed to barge traffic except for a few overnight hours. Ryan Tippets of the U.S. Coast Guard said shippers are aware of it so they're mostly avoiding the area.

Petersen said a benefit of the extraordinarily low river level is the ability to clean out the bottom of the river. Work being done will prove beneficial if the drought persists, and Petersen said a multiyear drought is a real possibility.

"How many droughts have you heard of that only lasted one year?" he asked. "The Dust Bowl was 12 years. If this is a multiyear event, we'll be in better shape next December."

Staff writer Melissa Miller contributed to this report.

Pertinent address:

Thebes, Ill.