Barge Strike Season on the Mississippi

Bridge Monitoring Proved Successful

Barge Strike Season Alleviated by Timely Notice

Spring snow runoff means high water, which also means bridge strikes. This year has been no different, except some bridge owners are now monitoring their bridges and are immediately alerted when a strike has occurred.

We were recently contacted by several clients with bridges on the Mississippi River that were pleased with SENSR's results as they dealt with high water and bridge strikes. In one particular incident, barges broke loose of their moorings and drifted into the river. Then a towboat collided with them, causing some of the barges it was towing to break loose.

Emergency services were notified, but neither the Coast Guard nor the barge operators notified the bridge operator.

Despite witnesses reporting that there were no bridge strikes, SENSR detected two and alerted the bridge operator. By comparing the time of these strikes with surveillance video, our customer was able to confirm that the barges had, in fact, collided with the bridge.

Read SENSR President Walt Bleser's new LinkedIn Pulse article for the whole story.