DECATUR, Ala. (WAFF) – A U.S. Department of Defense ban this week on non-essential travel and a freeze on government credit cards is causing critical backups of barges used by Decatur industries to get worse, according to shipping officials.
According to WAFF 48’s newspaper partner the Decatur Daily, an issue is the ongoing repairs to Wilson Lock on the Tennessee River in Florence by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, a part of the Defense Department. The repairs are scheduled to be completed in mid-June. The lock has been out of service since September, and there is now a 20-day wait for barges to travel through a much smaller auxiliary lock.
A memo this week from the Department of Government Efficiency led the Defense Department to order the spending freeze on civilian employees’ government credit cards, and to require department civilians to cancel all non-essential travel and return from any trips in progress “as soon as feasible.”
The freeze, according to Alison Phillips, spokeswoman for the Port of Decatur, a subsidiary of Parker Towing Co., has resulted in the “halting of repairs at Wilson Lock. Without an immediate resolution and the implementation of necessary waivers, this situation could escalate into a serious disruption with severe consequences for commerce and industry in North Alabama.”…