Contract awarded for Phase 1 navigation lock work at the Soo
David Wagman | February 10, 2020The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Detroit District, awarded a nearly $53 million contract to Trade West Construction Inc. of Mesquite, Nevada, for the first phase of construction on a $1 billion lock at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, to accommodate ships traveling between Lake Superior and the lower Great Lakes.
The project will be constructed in three phases. Trade West's portion involves deepening the upstream approach channel to a depth of 30 feet. Work is set to begin in spring 2020 and will take around two years to complete.
Artist's rendering of proposed new lock (left) at the Soo. Credit: USACE Detroit DivisionPhases two and three are still in design phase and involve rehabilitating the upstream approach walls and building the new lock chamber. Work on the upstream approach walls will stabilize existing walls to allow for modern vessels to tie up and wait their turn to pass through the new lock. This project phase is expected to be advertised for bid in February.
Construction of the new lock chamber will include rehabilitating downstream approach walls and is expected to be advertised for bid in the spring of 2021.
The St. Marys River connects Lake Superior with Lake Huron. Water drops roughly 21 feet in an area known as the St. Marys Rapids. This natural barrier to navigation led to construction of the St. Marys River Complex, which consists of four navigation locks (MacArthur, Poe, Davis and Sabin Locks) and two hydropower units, among other infrastructure. All of the infrastructure as well as the connecting dikes function as a dam.
View of the existing Soo Locks complex on the St. Marys River between Michigan and Ontario. Credit: USACE Detroit DistrictThe so-called New Lock at the Soo project is estimated to cost nearly $1 billion and could be completed in seven years after the start of construction, depending on congressional funding. The Corps said that the project is currently around 20% funded.
The Soo Locks facility is operated and maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Detroit District. Around 80 million tons of commercial commodities pass through the Soo Locks annually. Roughly 85% of commodity tonnage through the Soo Locks is restricted by vessel size to the Poe Lock. The new lock project would add a second Poe-sized lock (110' by 1,200') on the site of the existing decommissioned Davis and Sabin locks.
This should have started 15 years ago.
In reply to #1
And 15 years from now we will look back and say this about projects we should be starting now, reworking the infrastucture always a day late and millions of dollars more when discovered to complete
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