Two stretches of the southern Mississippi River were reopened to commercial traffic over the weekend after dredging operations deepened the shipping channel near Memphis, Tennessee, and near Stack Island, Mississippi, the U.S. Coast Guard said on Monday. A southbound queue of 22 tow boats hauling 392 barges was still waiting to pass a section of river near Stack Island on Monday morning, but the northbound queue has been cleared, said U.S. Coast Guard spokesperson Petty Officer Ryan Graves. There were no vessels waiting to pass near Memphis, he said.
The Mississippi River at Memphis is forecast to recede over the next two weeks to multi-year lows, possibly challenging the low-water record set in 1988 by late October, according to the National Weather Service river forecast.
