The Soo Locks are a bucket list destination for any Boatnerd.<\/b>
\nThe Soo Locks are a bucket list destination for any Boatnerd, fans of freighters that ply Great Lakes waters. So it’d be easy to think Tom Soeltner, U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, Detroit District, Lock and Dam Supervisor \u2014 or better known as lockmaster \u2014 is the biggest Boatnerd of all. «I’m actually not a Boatnerd at all», Soeltner said. «There’s a lot of boats I do like to see. People call me all the time and say ‘what’s the cargo’ and I say, ‘I don’t care he’s going downbound.» Soeltner’s priorities need to be elsewhere. «I’m more into the flow, because that’s our job. It’s to keep the time as low as we can, the transit times. And to keep traffic moving, that’s our goal,» he said. «If we can keep the ships moving, they’re happy, we’re happy, that’s the mission.» Soeltner does that by staying in communication with ships heading south from Lake Superior or north from Lake Huron. He also coordinates with the railroad, Coast Guard and the numerous tour boats and pleasure boats that transit the locks every day. «My job here is supervising the operation of the two locks. It’s to keep the traffic moving,» he said. «You could say kind of like an air traffic controller only with ships.» The Soo Locks first opened in 1855. Prior to that, ships had to be portaged around the rapids in the St. Mary’s River. Lake Superior is 21 feet higher than Lake Huron, and those rapids kept cargo from flowing quickly through the Great Lakes. Today, two locks on the U.S. side \u2014 the Poe and MacArthur \u2014 provide quick, safe passage for vessels transiting the lakes. The Poe Lock was first built in 1896, and rebuilt in 1968 to a length of 1,200 feet to accommodate larger ships. «And as soon as it was made, the industry built a ship to fit in it,» said Soeltner. The MacArthur Lock was built in 1943 in just six months to keep up with the demand for steel production during World War II. «They had to get iron ore to the steel mills,» Soeltner said. «It’s crazy how fast things could be done in the ’40’s.» The locks are first come, first serve, Soeltner said, with the smaller MacArthur locks mostly used for tour boats and smaller vessels while the Poe Lock is reserved for freighters and larger vessels. While a variety of cargo moves through the locks, taconite \u2014 used to make steel \u2014 is by far the number one cargo according to Soeltner. «All the steel mills are on the east coast, Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan,» he said. «That’s probably 70-80 percent of the cargo. A lot of grain comes out of Thunder Bay. «There is a little bit of coal, which always fascinated me that we ship coal both ways. Because they use coal for steel and they use coal for heat but it’s two different coals. Some lumber comes through and scrap iron.» Soeltner describes the locks as big bath tubs. Once the gates are closed, valves are opened to fill a lock, or drain it down, with gravity doing all the work. It takes 20 minutes to fill or drain the Poe Lock, and about 8 minutes to fill or drain the MacArthur Lock. The Poe sees about 15-17 ship on average per day, he said. In the summer time the MacArthur will see 20-25 lockages, mostly for the tour boats. Work is currently underway to combine the older Davis and Sabin locks into one lock, identical to the Poe Lock, to help speed up traffic and provide backup. The new lock should be completed in 2030. «Yeah they’re extremely important the locks are,» Soeltner said. «Just for the economy. The amount of traffic that comes through here is pretty amazing. The view, the boats that come through here, the people that you work with, it’s really a joy to work here. It’s a pretty incredible place.»<\/p>\n