More than 400 barges were delayed on the lower Mississippi River on Wednesday after a bridge crack prompted the U.S. Coast Guard to halt vessel traffic on a portion of the waterway crucial for shipping crops to export markets, reports Reuters.
The disruption hit as strong demand for U.S. corn and soybeans has tightened inventories and pushed crop prices to their highest in more than eight years.
The Coast Guard stopped all traffic on the Mississippi River near Memphis - between mile markers 736 and 737 - after a crack was discovered in the Hernando de Soto Bridge that spans the river, according to a statement.
Almost all grain barges must pass underneath the bridge on their way to Gulf of Mexico export facilities near New Orleans after being loaded along the upper Mississippi, Ohio, Illinois or Missouri rivers, according to the Soy Transportation Coalition, an agricultural industry group.
