Commercial traffic at the World Trade Bridge, the busiest inland commercial port along the U.S.-Mexico border, was temporarily halted over the weekend after floodwaters carried federal border buoys downstream and lodged them beneath the bridge.

The City of Laredo suspended truck traffic Saturday and Sunday to allow contractors to remove dozens of large cylindrical buoys that accumulated against the bridge's support pylons following days of heavy flooding in South and Central Texas.

Photos from the scene showed strings of the 12- to 15-foot-long buoys trapped beneath the international crossing as swift currents pushed debris down the Rio Grande.

"As a precautionary measure, the City of Laredo temporarily suspended commercial traffic at the World Trade Bridge today to allow a federal contractor to safely remove the buoys that became lodged at the base of the bridge," Mayor Victor Treviño said in a statement Sunday.

Treviño said inspectors found no structural damage to the bridge and expected commercial traffic to resume Monday after the removal operation was completed and floodwaters began receding.

The National Weather Service forecast the Rio Grande at the World Trade Bridge to crest near 27 feet Sunday, approximately 9 feet above flood stage.

The World Trade Bridge is the largest inland commercial port on the Southwest border, handling an estimated 15,000 to 18,000 commercial trucks each day between the United States and Mexico. City officials scheduled the temporary closure over the weekend because freight traffic is significantly lighter than during the workweek, reducing disruptions to cross-border trade.

The buoys originated upstream in Eagle Pass, where floodwaters swept approximately 120 federally owned buoys from Shelby Park into the Rio Grande, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

"CBP is working with its contractor to retrieve these buoys," a CBP spokesperson said, adding that the floating barriers had been stored on land and were not yet deployed in the river.

The agency plans to install approximately 533 miles of waterborne barrier buoys along sections of the Rio Grande between the Gulf Coast and Del Rio as part of its border security strategy.

More than 600 buoys had previously been stored at Shelby Park. However, on July 7, the Eagle Pass City Council voted not to renew a lease allowing the federal contractor to use the riverfront park for buoy storage.

Recovery efforts remain underway as officials continue monitoring river levels and removing debris left behind by the recent flooding.