Mv. Joseph Patrick Eckstein Is First To Twin Cities
The St. Paul Engineer District kicked off the official start of the 2024 navigation season on the Upper Mississippi River by locking the mv. Joseph Patrick Eckstein of Marquette Transportation Company through Lock and Dam 2 with a 12-barge tow, in Hastings, Minn. The tow was en route to St. Paul, Minn., on St. Patrick’s Day—March 17.
The first lock-through of a commercial vessel means all of the St. Paul District’s locks are accessible to commercial and recreational vessels. The earliest date for an upbound tow to reach Lock and Dam 2 was March 4, in 1983, 1984 and 2000. The average start date of the navigation season is March 22. The first tow in 2023 arrived on March 12, when themv. Phillip M. Pfeffer with six barges passed through Lock and Dam 2. The last tow lockage of 2023 took place on December 5, when the mv. Thomas Erickson departed Lock and Dam 10 near Guttenberg, Iowa.
In most years, commercial operators wait eagerly for the St. Paul District’s measurements of the ice at Lake Pepin, the widest part of the Upper Mississippi River, before the navigation season begins, but this year’s winter weather was so warm that the district canceled the measurements, saying the ice was too thin to risk sending out crews.
Caption for photo: The mv. Joseph Patrick Eckstein of Marquette Transportation Company locks through Lock and Dam 2. (Photo courtesy of St. Paul Engineer District)
