By Tom Polansek
CHICAGO, Could 14 (Reuters) – The Mississippi River reopened to vessel site visitors close to Memphis on Friday, the U.S. Coast Guard mentioned, ending a shutdown of part of the waterway that disrupted shipments of oil and corn and prompted a backlog of greater than 1,000 barges.
The Coast Guard mentioned the river is open to all vessel site visitors with out restrictions, after site visitors was halted on Tuesday due to a fracture within the Hernando DeSoto Bridge that carries vehicular site visitors on Interstate 40 over the river.
“Primarily based on data offered to us by the Tennessee Division of Transportation, the Coast Guard has decided that transit below the I-40 bridge is protected for maritime site visitors,” mentioned Coast Guard Capt. Ryan Rhodes, captain of the Port of Memphis.
The reopening will start to ease a jam of 62 vessels with a complete of 1,058 barges that have been ready to move by the closed space, in response to the Coast Guard.
Nearly all grain barges should move beneath the DeSoto bridge on their strategy to Gulf of Mexico export amenities close to New Orleans after being loaded alongside the higher Mississippi, Ohio, Illinois or Missouri rivers, in response to the Soy Transportation Coalition, an agricultural trade group.
(Reporting by Tom Polansek; Enhancing by Steve Orlofsky and Dan Grebler)
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