# Infrastructure: Aging River Locks in the Corn Belt Prove Costly | Farm Policy News | Illinois

> An analysis cited by Farm Policy News reports that nearly 80% of commercial lock sites had an unexpected outage in 2016, up from 71% in 1993. The average delay rose to 144 minutes from 90 minutes over the same period, and some shipping has shifted off the river.

- Date: 2017-08-03 · published 2017-08-03T12:00:00.000Z
- Category: logistics · region US · magnitude low
- Page: https://feedsoft.ai/events/69338-infrastructure-aging-river-locks-in-the-corn-belt-prove-costly-farm-policy-news
- Commodities: [Barge Freight (St. Louis)](https://feedsoft.ai/c/BARGE.md)

## Why it matters

Longer lock delays raise barge transit costs and tie up grain, which widens basis and adds to freight costs passed on to buyers. Rising river freight costs support barge rates and weigh on Midwest farm-gate bids.

## Read by commodity

- BARGE: bullish ▲

## Sources

- farmpolicynews.illinois.edu: https://farmpolicynews.illinois.edu/2017/08/infrastructure-aging-river-locks-corn-belt-prove-costly/

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