More than 8,000 cargo ships travel through the Soo Locks each year, carrying 80 million tons of cargo.
SAULT STE. MARIE — A portion of Michigan’s congressional delegation and Gov. Rick Snyder headed to this Upper Peninsula city on Friday to put an image to a problem — the aging and deteriorating Soo Locks.
« We need a new lock. The economy of Michigan and the nation is really dependent on an operation that works and at some point this is not going to work, » said U. S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph. « They don’ t need to do yet another an economic analysis because we know what the impact is going to be if we’ re not able to replace this. It would be disastrous. »
He called the Soo Locks « the heartbeat of the nation, » that works to get critical cargo —mostly iron ore, coal and grain — across the Midwest.
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The Poe Lock is the workhorse of the Soo Locks and it will turn 50 next year. Nearly all of the cargo ships have to go through that lock to be raised or lowered the 21 feet difference between Lake Huron and Lake Superior.
While the political delegation toured the locks, the Zelada Desgagnes, a cargo ship carrying the flag of Barbados, traveled through the locks from Lake Huron to Lake Superior on its way to Thunder Bay, Ontario, to pick up a load of grain.
It was one of more than 8,000 freighters that use the locks each year, carrying 80 million tons of cargo. The first state lock was built in 1855. The four Locks operated by the United States Army Corp of Engineers — the Davis, Sabin, MacArthur, and Poe locks — continue to provide the connection between Lakes Superior and Huron. Currently, all ships utilize the larger Poe (1,200 feet) and MacArthur (800 feet) locks.
The Davis and Sabin locks are not operational, but if federal money is authorized to build another lock to match the size of the Poe lock, the Davis lock will be filled in and the Sabin lock would be widened and deepened to match the size of the Poe.
It’s a critical link for the economies of Michigan and the nation, Snyder said.
« To put it in a simple sense, this is about our national economy, » he said after touring the locks. « If you look at the Homeland Security study on the economic impact, if this lock went down … we’ re talking about millions of jobs at risk. This is about our country. »
The need for a new lock was best illustrated in 2015 when the MacArthur lock shut down for 20 days while crews performed repairs. The closure delayed the delivery of nearly 2 million tons of cargo.
Bills will be introduced in both the U. S. House and Senate next week to authorize the necessary spending to create another Poe lock. The Army Corp of Engineers still needs to do a study on the project, but a 10-year-old study of the expansion pegged the cost at $582 million. Inflation has pushed that number closer to $1 billion, said U. S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-East Lansing. Construction of a new lock would take 10 years, so time is of the essence, said U. S. Rep. Jack Bergman, R-Watersmeet.
« T his is the next first step. It’s our time to get it done now, » he said.
Snyder said he’s had several conversations with the administration of President Donald Trump about the necessity of the project, which was first authorized in 1986, but has never received federal funding. With Trump promising a substantial investment in the nation’s infrastructure, building the case for the economic impact of the Locks should be easy, he said.
« I’ m in full support of any action. It will be better for our nation, our state and our economy, » he said.
Contact Kathleen Gray: 313-223-4430, kgray99@freepress.com or on Twitter @michpoligal
