JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Freight barges were idled among some 50 vessels stacked up Tuesday along a normally bustling stretch of the Mississippi River that was closed as crews worked to clean up leaking oil spilled in a weekend barge accident.

Workers have been skimming oily water around the clock near Vicksburg, Miss., since a barge carrying thousands of gallons of oil struck a railroad bridge and began leaking before dawn Sunday. The accident forced the closure of a 16-mile stretch of the lower Mississippi, a major inland corridor for vessels carrying oil, fuel, grain and other goods.

A Coast Guard spokesman, Jonathan Lally, told The Associated Press by telephone early Tuesday that 50 barges and other vessels idled as the river remained closed to traffic eight miles north and eight miles south of Vicksburg.