Today is latest-ever start to the Mississippi's navigation season

Star Tribune

Last update: April 11, 2008 - 11:27 AM

The latest-ever start to the Mississippi River navigation season in Minnesota is unfolding today.

The David L. Griggs, a tow operated by General Electric Capital Corp., of Brownsville, Texas, is pushing 15 barges northward and arrived in St. Paul at about 8:45 this morning, said Shannon Bauer, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The average opening date of the navigation season for the past 30 years has been March 20. In 2007, the first tow to make it to St. Paul arrived on March 29.

This year’s late start, due to an unusually cold spring, breaks the previous late record of April 7, set in 1978.

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