The Soo Locks will close on Monday, Jan. 15 for annual season maintenance as most of the shipping season pauses on the Great Lakes.
Each year, the locks in Sault Ste. Marie close in mid-January for maintenance. They will reopen at 12:01 a.m. on March 25. The Poe Lock will open on March 25 and the MacArthur Lock will open on April 24.
“Every year, the Corps of Engineers uses the non-navigation winter period to perform maintenance and keep the Soo Locks operating,” Maintenance Branch Chief Nicholas Pettit said. “The Detroit District team works long hours in extreme conditions to complete a significant amount of maintenance during this annual closure period. The work they perform is unique, especially given the harsh northern Michigan winter conditions they work in.”
This year, work will include a temporary panel bridge installed across the Poe Lock, the largest in the Soo Locks, which is used by the 1,000-foot freighters on the Great Lakes.
According to the Army Corps of Engineers, the panel bridge will provide the ability to mobilize materials and equipment to job sites throughout the winter.
Crews will also complete structural inspections, maintenance and install lifting lugs on the upstream miter gate. On the downstream gates, crews will install anchorate components and complete structural repairs.
The corps said major rehabilitation will continue on the Poe Lock's upstream and downstream ship arrestor systems.
The team will install a temporary panel bridge across the Poe Lock. This panel bridge will provide the ability to mobilize materials and equipment to the job sites throughout the winter closure.
“With the winter temperatures being more mild than previous years, the Soo Operations team has been proactively prepping for the non-navigation season,” LeighAnn Ryckeghem Soo Locks Operations Manager said. “Every year weather poses challenges and adds intensity to maintenance, the team is highly skilled and equipped to safely execute critical projects that allow for continued operational reliability during the navigation season,”
Work is also continuing on a second Poe-sized lock in the Soo Locks. Last month, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded a $213.8 million contract for Option 1B which includes construction of the lock wall monoliths, the very large concrete wall portiosn that make up the sides of the chamber along the north and south side of the champer.
“There are 21 chamber monoliths that make up the north wall and 21 chamber monoliths that make up the south wall,” Jeremy Nichols, Inland Navigation Design Center, New Lock at the Soo Design Engineer said. “The chamber monoliths are approximately 44 feet wide and 70 feet tall. Each monolith will be constructed by placing mass concrete in roughly five-foot-high lifts, with a total of 14 lifts per monolith.”
The new lock is being built in three phases. The first phase was completed in 2022, with the second phase set to be complete in the summer of 2024.
Phase 3 work began in late 2022 and is expected to last seven years, given efficient funding and favorable weather.
