The efficiency and reliability of Great Lakes shipping took a giant step forward Thursday when Congress fully funded construction of a second Poe-sized Lock at Sault Ste. Marie.
The $342 million lock, included in the Water Resources Development Act of 2007 approved Thursday, will ensure cargos move quickly on the Great Lakes, unimpeded by maritime traffic jams.
Last spring, Adolph Ojard, executive director of the Duluth Seaway Port Authority, said a new lock is a sorely needed and long-overdue improvement. Most of the lakers passing between Lake Superior and Lake Huron via the St. Marys River must wait to use the Poe Lock, the only structure large enough to handle 1,000-foot vessels.
"There continues to be more and more congestion and delay at the Poe each year, due to increased vessel traffic," Ojard told the Duluth News Tribune, adding that it's not unusual for lakers to encounter two- to three-hour waits at the lock.
The result is costly for carriers, said Ojard, who said each hour of delay costs the typical laker about $3,000.
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"A second Poe-sized Lock to connect Lake Superior to the lower four Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway has been one of the greatest needs on the Lakes for decades," John D. Baker, president of Great Lakes Maritime Task Force, said Friday in a prepared statement. GLMTF is the largest coalition of shipping interests on the Great Lakes. "If there had been a lengthy failure of the Poe Lock, the iron ore, coal, and export grain trades on the Great Lakes would have slowed to a trickle and threatened the livelihood of hundreds of thousands of American workers."
More than one-third of the vessels sailing out of the Twin Ports are 1,000 feet long.
Completed in 1968, the aging Poe Lock shuts down annually two months of the year for repairs; however, Army Corp. officials said January-March is not the optimal time for making concrete repairs.
"If the Poe Lock failed, the U.S. fleet could not survive," Greg Nekvasil of the Lake Carriers Association said during a 2004 interview. "Smaller ships would not meet the need."
It will be 110 feet wide and 1,200 feet long and replace the smaller Davis and Sabin locks constructed in the late 1910s.
Baker, who is also president of the ILA's Great Lakes District Council , noted the second Poe-sized Lock was first authorized in 1986, but was stalled by a requirement that a local sponsor fund a portion of the project. The Great Lakes Commission stepped forward as the sponsor and the local share -- about $54 million -- was divided among the eight Great Lakes states based on economic benefit. Wisconsin approved its $5.8 million share of the project in 2005.
The locks at Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., typically handle more than 80 million tons of cargo a year. Iron ore for steel production, coal for power generation, and grain for export overseas. They are the primary cargos that transit the locks.
The bill also directs the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to accelerate its dredging program on the Great Lakes, said James H.I. Weakley, third Vice President of GLMTF and President of Lake Carriers' Association.
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"Decades of inadequate funding for dredging have forced vessels to leave millions of tons of cargo behind each year. Restoring the Great Lakes Navigation System to project dimensions will finally allow Great Lakes shipping to achieve the efficiencies for which it was designed."
