Cargo pass reopens between Arkansas, Mississippi rivers

— Eight towboats pushing barges sailed through locks at the Montgomery Point Lock and Dam on Saturday, the first day in two weeks that shippers could float cargo between the Arkansas and Mississippi Rivers.

“All is back to normal. No issues or backlogs,” John Janoush, vice president of Jantran Inc. of Rosedale, Miss., said Monday. Jantran handles most of the towing on the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System.

The farthest eastern locks on the McClellan-Kerr system, at Montgomery Point, were closed on Dec. 1 for three weeks of emergency repairs to hinges on two lock gates. That would have been the longest closure of the connection between the Arkansas River and the Mississippi in decades. Because of drought conditions and low water levels, river traffic couldn’t use a navigation pass around the repair work.

Last week, the Corps of Engineers learned that rising Mississippi River levels would allow the navigation pass to open Saturday. The agency believes water will be high enough to keep the channel open until at least Dec. 29, Corps of Engineers spokesman Laurie Driver said Monday.

Repairs to the Montgomery Point lock gates are expected to be complete Friday , she said.

Business, Pages 28 on 12/18/2012

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