Nearly 100 boats and barges were waiting for passage on Monday along an 11-mile stretch of the Mississippi River that has been closed due to low water levels.
The stretch of of river near Greenville has been open only intermittently a vessel ran aground on August 11th. The area is being surveyed for dredging and a Coast Guard boat is replacing eight navigation markers. There at least 40 northbound vessels and nearly 60 southbound vessels stranded, waiting for passage as of Monday.
The Army Corps of Engineers has been dredging to keep a lane 9 feet deep and 300 feet wide open.
It's not immediately clear when the river will re-open. A stretch of river near Greenville was also closed in 1988 due to low water levels caused by severe drought. The river hit a record low on the Memphis gauge that year.
The Mississippi River from Illinois to Louisiana has seen water levels plummet due to drought conditions in the past three months. Near Memphis, the river level was more than 12 feet lower than normal for this time of year.
With thousands of tons of materials shipped on the river each day, maintaining the navigation channel is essential to keeping vessels from colliding or running aground.
