A tugboat pushing 18 barges hit the Mississippi River Bridge at about 5:15 a.m. Wednesday, officials said.

The southbound barges collided with the support on the Vidalia side of the older westbound bridge. Damage was minor, not enough to close the bridge, Mississippi Department of Transportation officials said.

The tugboat pilot told officials river currents caused him to lose some control of the barges upriver, and he couldn’t correct by the time he came to the bridge, MDOT Bridge Maintenance Supervisor Buddy Vines said.

The pilot of the tugboat City of Cleveland, operated by Jantran, Inc. out of Rosedale, would undergo drug tests, a routine step, Vines said.

When the barges collided with the support, one of the barges broke loose and drifted downstream for about a mile and sunk.

The barge was carrying grain. Workers pushed the barge into the bank to secure it so it wouldn’t damage other vessels.

“Our main concern was if it was carrying hazardous waste,” Vines said.

MDOT Maintenance Supervisor James Johnson said everyone involved was glad the barge’s cargo was relatively safe.

“(Something like) a load of rocks would not be that big a deal, but a load of chlorine could do some serious damage,” Johnson said.

MDOT officials will inspect the bridge again once the water level goes down to see if the barges did additional damage, Johnson said.

A year ago almost to the day, a barge hit the bridge’s center support.

Johnson said he wasn’t surprised about the barge hitting the bridge. With higher gas costs, river transportation is cheaper, meaning more barges were on the river.

“As much tonnage as goes up and down the river, they do very little damage,” Johnson said.

MDOT Director Butch Brown said bridge-barge collisions were not uncommon and rarely did serious damage.

“It happens up and down the river,” Brown said. “We have several bridges that span the river, and it’s not an uncommon thing.”

Brown said he guessed a barge hit a bridge along the Mississippi state line roughly once every two or three months.

Changes in the water levels can mean changes in current, he said, and the weight and length of cargo can affect steering.

“Couple (the current changes) with heavy winds on an empty tow, and it can blow barges around like a hot air balloon,” Brown said. “And if it’s full with a good head of steam an high water,” it can make for difficult steering, too.

The fact that a barge dislocated was probably fortunate because the full force didn’t go into the support.

When that happens, “99 times out of 100, it will do very little damage to the supports,” Brown said. “It’s a hell of a force, but it’s not like a tanker plowing into it at full speed.”

Brown said MDOT workers would “monitor the situation” as time goes on.