Disruption 1: Mississippi River Lock Delays
It is not unprecedented for the Mississippi River to be closed to barge traffic for extended periods of time due to either water flows that are too high or two low for operating the locks.
In this situation, shippers have a few options.
The first is to delay shipping until the disruption clears.
This will cause delays in waiting and delays in congestion once the river is opened. The second option is to divert to road or rail.
This is likely to have increased costs but reduced time.
The third option is to use another water route.
This option isn't always available, but there are ports farther downstream and the Missouri River is also an option.
For Louisiana which is 100% on water, the mode choice logit model predicted that rail would account for 94% of shipments when water was not available.