JACKSON, Miss. — The Coast Guard is permitting restricted commercial vessel traffic on the Mississippi River near Vicksburg, Miss., as crews work to remove oil from a leaking barge, a Coast Guard spokesman said Thursday.
Chief Petty Officer Paul Roszkowski said southbound commercial traffic was being allowed to pass through the area during daylight hours and northbound commercial traffic will be permitted to move at night.
A 16-mile stretch of the river was closed Sunday after two oil barges hit a railroad bridge and one of them started leaking light crude.
The Coast Guard allowed the first barges to pass Wednesday to test how the movement on the river would affect efforts to clean up the leaking oil and take it off the damaged barge.
At times there have been more than 70 vessels, including towboats, and hundreds of barges idled at the affected section of the river that separates Mississippi and Louisiana.
Crews resumed pumping oil Thursday from the leaking barge onto another barge - a process known as lightering.
The operation began Wednesday but was halted for a time after the barge shifted unexpectedly when the oil was being transferred.
The river is not expected to reopen fully before the transfer and cleanup is complete.
Front Section, Pages 10 on 02/01/2013