St. Louis, Mo.-Barges began moving again on the Mississippi River north of St. Louis on April 1, just five days after river traffic was shut down while repairs were made to Lock No. 25 at Winfield, Mo., about 45 miles north of St. Louis. According to wire reports, about 200 barges had been waiting to clear the lock, which opened to traffic at 12:45 a.m. on Tuesday. The unscheduled maintenance at the lock involved repairs to deteriorated pins holding the lower gate to the wall. An initial estimate put the lock closure at eight days from the time of the announcement on March 26 (GM March 31, p. 1). Some fertilizer industry sources had expressed concerns that the closure could hamper movement of replacement tons to upriver locations, but the continuing wet weather in the Midwest kept fertilizer movement and fieldwork to a minimum in early April. The Associated Press reported that Lock No. 25 began operations in 1939, with some 30 million tons of commodity cargo passing through its gates in 2007 alone. Lock No. 25 is reportedly one of seven locks on the Mississippi and Illinois rivers authorized by the 2007 Water Resources Development Act for expansion with a 1,200-foot-long chamber. The expansion projects at all of the locks are expected to cost $2 billion, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
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