The importance of maintaining a safe navigation channel assumes great significance when the role of the Mississippi River as the main stem of the vast inland waterways system is taken into account. With completion of the Ohio River canalization in 1929, the Upper Mississippi River canalization in 1940, and enlargement of the Intracoastal Waterway in 1943, a vast network of waterways for barge traffic was provided. The 12-foot-deep Intracoastal Waterway system extends from New Orleans westward to the …showed first 75 words of 551 total…

…showed last 75 words of 551 total…Mississippi to Sioux City, Iowa. A channel is maintained to a 7-foot depth to Kansas City, Missouri, and 6.5-foot depth as far as Omaha, Nebraska. The Red River Waterway, now under construction, and the Ouachita-Black rivers navigation systems connect with the Atchafalaya River project and the Mississippi River to extend 9-foot up navigation northward along the Red River to northwest Louisiana and eastern Texas and via the Ouachita-Black rivers through eastern Louisiana and southern Arkansas.