Got Grain? Highways Through Madison, WI, Will if There’s a Major Mississippi Failure

If you’ve ever wondered about just how valuable trucking is to cities like Madison, WI, and other places around the region, consider the concern being raised over the potential for failure of at least one of 25 locks in the upper portion of the Mississippi River.

One 15-barge tow traveling down the river carries enough grain to fill two trains or more than 1,000 trucks.

A recent study is creating worries that hundreds of those trucks would be headed in all directions, including Interstates 90 and 94 through Madison should there be a major problem with one of the aging locks on the Mississippi.

University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers estimate that a shutdown of the river at Hannibal, Missouri would have a ripple effect on roads. It would mean moving more than 12 million tons of grain over a nine-month shipping season by truck.

While Bay & Bay Transportation in Madison welcomes a challenge, there would be serious fallout in finding enough quality drivers, additional pollution, and the millions in dollars of damage that would be done to roads from having that many extra trucks pounding the pavement.

Putting the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on an ever-growing infrastructure improvement list that is mostly talk at this point in Washington. The Corps figure that backlogged maintenance costs for locks dams on the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers is more than $1 billion.

A lock failure is something that would surely affect freight haulers everywhere around the Midwest. While we at Bay & Bay hope it doesn’t come to this, we’re always ready to take on the extra load. That’s why we offer professional drivers in the Madison area and elsewhere competitive wages and a great benefits package. Because of this, we are consistently considered one of the best companies to drive for.

Learn more about it and discover why Bay & Bay is known as a quality driven tradition. If you’ve got the right stuff, call (888) 801-3026, or visit our web page for more details and information about how you can join our growing team in the Madison area.