Watch a 740-foot freighter slide out of the Soo Locks up close - mlive.com

2022-06-04 02:37:21 By : Mr. Kevin Tao

Baie Comeau exits the Soo Locks

SAULT STE. MARIE, MI — If you want to feel small, stand a few feet from a 740-foot freighter as it slides past on its way out of a 1,200-foot shipping lock.

The Baie Comeau, a self-unloading bulk freighter owned by Canada Steamship Lines, passed through the Poe Lock in Sault Ste. Marie about 8:15 a.m. on Monday, May 16 while en route to Nanticoke, Ontario from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.

The Baie Comeau, named for the city of Baie-Comeau in Quebec, locked through the Soo after a busy weekend at the shipping complex, which saw 21 vessels, including tour boats and survey boats as well as large cargo-carrying freighters, lock through the day prior.

MLive received an up close look at the downbound freighter during a visit to the Soo Locks while environment reporters Garret Ellison and Sheri McWhirter, and photographer Cory Morse, cross Michigan’s Upper Peninsula this week on a travel reporting project.

All shipping traffic is currently passing through the Poe Lock while the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers performs maintenance on the smaller MacArthur Lock.

The Army Corps is busy with construction on a new Poe-sized lock that will be built where the unused Sabin Lock, the farthest north of the four-lock complex, is now.

The Army Corps received $479 million from the recent bipartisan infrastructure law to complete funding for the estimated $1.3 and $1.5 billion construction project.

The project will create a second lock big enough to handle the 1,000-foot freighters which carry iron ore and other commodities between Lake Superior and ports on the lower Great Lakes where mills turn the ore into steel used in automobiles and manufacturing.

Lockmaster Chris Albrough said having a second Poe-sized lock will increase efficiency at the shipping chokepoint, cutting down on what’s essentially a one-lane road for the largest ships, which often must wait hours for a lockage window.

“With the new lock, we’re anticipating the delays will be significantly less,” said Albrough. “On days we’re backed up with traffic, we can essentially have one-way traffic through each lock.”

The project is expected to finish in 2030.

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