The Army Corps of Engineers has agreed to restore 24-hour service to the most important locks on the Ouachita River navigation system after more than two years of lobbying from the Ouachita River Valley Association.
Bill Hobgood, executive director of the association, says 24-hour service will be restored on the Jonesville and Columbia locks, where more than 90 percent of commercial navigation takes place, by late summer or fall. The two uppers locks, Felsenthal and H.K. Thatcher in Arkansas, will continue to operate on two eight-hour shifts each day.
Hobgood announced the change during an Association board meeting Wednesday.
The corps reduced service on the navigation system in 2012 after annual shipping tonnages on the river dropped below 1 million.