Closed locks, dams strand 100 barges in Winona

Updated: June 29, 2008 - 9:51 PM

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WINONA, MINN. - More than 100 barges are stranded in Winona's commercial harbor as they wait for the reopening of Mississippi River locks and dams that have been closed because of flooding in Iowa, Illinois and Missouri.

The delays amount to another blow for Winona businesses that ship grain down river, following on the heels of a late thaw and the closure of the highway bridge between Winona and Wisconsin.

Barge traffic in the commercial harbor is down 36 percent from the same time last year.

"It's been the slowest start in 20 years," Larry Laber, manager of CHS, which ships farmers' grain downriver and offloads fertilizers to ship to local retailers, told the Winona Daily News.

CHS alone has at least 50 barges stranded in Winona's harbor, Laber said.

Barge traffic probably won't be able to resume until after Saturday, when the locks and dams are tentatively scheduled to reopen.

But that reopening could cause a traffic jam on the upper Mississippi, as well as a shortage of empty barges to load more grain into, he said.

The delays aren't just bad business for those companies that ship commodities downriver. Dan Nisbit, president of CD Corp., a Winona trucking company, said he is waiting on 20 incoming salt and coal barges stranded near Davenport, Iowa.

The lock and dam closures on their own probably wouldn't devastate port businesses, said Judy Bodway, director of Winona's Port Authority.

But combined with the bridge closure and delays from the late thaw, it adds up to a cumulative blow.

"This just makes things doubly hard for them," Bodway said.

ASSOCIATED PRESS