# Mississippi River may reopen to barge traffic in 24-48 hours | Air Freight News

> The Mississippi River may reopen to barge traffic within 24 to 48 hours, according to people briefed on the situation. The reopening depends on a second engineering review of the cracked Interstate 40 bridge. A priority plan puts a Defense Department shipment first, followed by fuel barges to replace supplies disrupted by the Colonial Pipeline outage.

- Date: 2021-05-13 · published 2021-05-13T12:00:00.000Z
- Category: logistics · region US · magnitude medium
- Page: https://feedsoft.ai/events/47304-mississippi-river-may-reopen-to-barge-traffic-in-24-48-hours-air-freight-news
- Commodities: [Barge Freight (St. Louis)](https://feedsoft.ai/c/BARGE.md), [ULSD / Diesel](https://feedsoft.ai/c/DIESEL.md)

## Why it matters

A quick reopening would ease the grain export bottleneck and reduce barge freight rates. Fuel barge priority also signals tight refined product supply in the Southeast.

## Read by commodity

- BARGE: bearish ▼
- DIESEL: bullish ▲

## Similar past events

| Commodity | Date | Event | 5-day % | 20-day % |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| DIESEL | 2026-03-30 | [Mississippi River Reopens As Freight Costs Begin Rising -](https://feedsoft.ai/events/16378-mississippi-river-reopens-as-freight-costs-begin-rising.md) | -4.2% | -12.2% |
| DIESEL | 2019-02-08 | [Port Report: Coastal shift in U.S. container trade might be in cards for 2020 - FreightWaves](https://feedsoft.ai/events/60490-port-report-coastal-shift-in-u-s-container-trade-might-be-in-cards-for-2020.md) | +3.8% | +5.3% |
| DIESEL | 2022-03-17 | [U.S. Grain Barge Freight Rates Skyrocket \| Feed & Grain](https://feedsoft.ai/events/42461-u-s-grain-barge-freight-rates-skyrocket-feed-and-grain.md) | +32.3% | +20.2% |
| DIESEL | 2021-10-28 | [Barge Shipments Grind Lower \| Red River Farm Network](https://feedsoft.ai/events/44433-barge-shipments-grind-lower-red-river-farm-network.md) | -3.1% | -5.3% |
| DIESEL | 2023-03-24 | [Another rail strike in Germany to add to European freight troubles - The Loadstar](https://feedsoft.ai/events/36877-another-rail-strike-in-germany-to-add-to-european-freight-troubles-the-loadstar.md) | -1.9% | -7.1% |

## Sources

- airfreight.news: https://airfreight.news/articles/full/mississippi-river-may-reopen-to-barge-traffic-in-24-48-hours

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Data from Feedsoft AI (https://feedsoft.ai/). For information only; not investment advice.