GRANITE CITY, Ill. (KMOX) - Barge traffic is again flowing through Lock and Dam 27 near Granite City this morning after an accident shut it down for most of yesterday.

At about five o’clock yesterday morning, a barge became caught on an auxiliary lock’s gate, forcing the Army Corps of Engineers to shut down a lock and dam that handles roughly half the nation’s farm exports.

It was feared the closure would last a couple of days but crews were able to make repairs in time to get traffic moving again overnight. At one point, eleven southbound and five northbound tows, pushing a combined 87 barges, were backed up.

The accident comes just five months after another accident closed Lock and Dam 27 for five days, stranding hundreds of barges.