SAULT STE. MARIE, MI — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has received $1.35 million from the Obama Administration to study areconfiguration of the Soo Locks, according to Michigan's Democratic U.S. senators.
The Army Corps, which operates the four lock shipping complex on the St. Marys River in Sault Ste. Marie, is considering whether to reconfigure two unused locks into one longer, wider lock big enough to handle the 1,000-foot ships passing through.
The new economic impact study is the latest step in the long-awaited $580 million project, which was initially authorized by Congress in the mid-1980s but stalled for lack of funding.
The Army Corps received the study funds early this month, said Sen. Debbie Stabenow, who co-chairs a 26-member bipartisan U.S. House and Senate Great Lakes task force.
"As soon as they can get that study done, we can move forward on engineering and actually get this going," said Stabenow. "We're confident (the study) is going to show it's in the best interest of the country to build the second lock."
Michigan Congressional delegates have been pushing for re-engineering the Sabin and Davis locks into one larger lock to build redundancy into the complex. Currently, only the 1,200-foot, 48-year-old Poe Lock can handle the largest ships.
A rendering showing what a new Poe-sized lock would look like in place of the Sabin and Davis locks at the Soo Locks complex in Sault Ste. Marie.
Those 1,000-footers like the Paul R. Tregurtha, the Mesabi Miner and others handle about 70 percent of all cargo passing through the locks, which raise and lower ships between the different surface elevations of Lake Superior and Lake Huron.
The senators say a 30-day unscheduled outage at the Poe Lock would result in an estimated $160 million in economic loses from delay in transport of commodities like iron ore, coal, limestone and other cargos moved around the lakes. An estimated 80 million tons of raw materials pass through the locks each year. The goods fuel agricultural, mining and manufacturing industries.
The 800-foot MacArthur Lock experienced just such an unscheduled outage this summer when a faulty gate mechanism forced a rare mid-shipping season shutdown that closed the lock for 20 days while crews performed repairs.
The closure was considered a major headache for the Great Lakes shipping companies, which held ships at dock facilities around the lakes to minimize backups in Sault Ste. Marie, a choke-point in the shipping system.
"This funding will help the Army Corps of Engineers take steps toward making critical upgrades to the locks so we can continue to safely and efficiently transport cargo throughout the Great Lakes," said Peters.
The Army Corps has resisted reconstruction of the locks in recent years, instead relying on maintenance paid for through annual budgeting.
A February report noted only 35 percent of current iron ore and coal shipments transiting the locks could be rerouted over existing infrastructure and railroads would not move the cargo without a 20-year contract.
Garret Ellison covers business, environment & the Great Lakes for MLive/The Grand Rapids Press. Email him at gellison@mlive.com or follow on Twitter &Instagram
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