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Columbia River to Reopen to Barges, Army Corps Says by Whitney McFerron Bloomberg, March 25, 2011

Shipping on the Columbia-Snake River System, a major gateway to the Pacific Ocean for U.S. wheat and barley exports, will reopen on March 26 after a three- month shutdown, the Army Corps of Engineers said.

Barge traffic has been "effectively" halted since Dec. 10 as eight dams along a 465-mile (748 kilometer) stretch of the river system underwent repairs and maintenance, said Scott Clemans, a spokesman for the Army Corps in Portland, Oregon. Work is finishing up today on two dams, The Dalles and Bonneville, and the Lower Monumental dam will reopen March 26, clearing the final obstruction on the waterway, he said.

The river system's reopening, originally scheduled for March 18, was delayed in part because of winds and heavy rain near Lower Monumental and problems during the installation of gates at The Dalles, Clemans said.

"For these projects, doing gate replacements, we're talking about tremendously large pieces of equipment that are 120 feet tall, 100 feet wide and weighing up to 2 million pounds in some cases, and yet they have to be aligned within millimeters," Clemans said. "It's a very complex and demanding task."

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