Potter Reserves the Night for Dredging

A fourteen-hour closure around the plant

The US Army Corps of Engineers has scheduled nightly river closures around dredge Potter at the lower Chain of Rocks canal, Upper Mississippi River mile 184.1. Notice 215399 sets out approximately six nights of maintenance dredging beginning on or about 26 October, with closures from 17:00 to 07:00 to support production. [1] The published programme gives the dredge and its tenders, barges and pipeline a 24-hour, seven-day operating pattern. Removed material is pumped outside the navigation channel through a pontoon or self-floating pipeline that may cross the channel. Potter can be contacted on marine channels 13 or 16. [1]

Passage coordination is part of the production cycle

The nightly closure occupies 14 hours. The remaining 10 hours sit within the plant's continuing 24-hour operation, so a tow approaching in daylight still needs the dredge's passage instructions and the position of its pipeline. The notice's purpose is to provide a concentrated working period near the plant. In a pipeline operation, a vessel passage can require a pause, pipe handling and restoration of the working arrangement. Grouping passage demand into coordinated periods can reduce repeated interruptions to the same dredging cut. Actual passage capacity depends on the workfront and traffic queue.