Soo Locks project wins funding approval

ABOUT THE SOO LOCKS The Soo Locks are critical infrastructure for Great Lakes-Seaway shipping and the North American Economy. As one of the largest and busiest waterways on earth, a combination of locks and canals swiftly lift and lower around 7,000 vessels annually. This network helps ships navigate the 21-foot drop in elevation between Lake Superior and Lakes Michigan and Huron.

The Soo Locks serve as North America’s connection to the global economy, allowing vessels on the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway system to freely move cargoes from the upper Great Lakes outward to the Atlantic Ocean—and back.

Each year, vessels passing through the Soo Locks haul an estimated 70 million tonnes of cargo to critical industries in the U.S. and Canada. In total, the infrastructure supports more than 123,000 jobs and $22.6 billion in economic activity.

The Locks operate nine months of the year to accommodate the largest thousand-foot vessels on the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway system. Each vessel that passes through the Locks efficiently hauls its cargoes — like iron ore for steel and agricultural products for consumption — to support North American industries and citizen’s everyday life.

CONSTRUCTION PROJECT The new Soo Lock project will construct a second, 1,200ft-long lock, to handle thousand-foot vessels on the Great Lakes. The new lock will be situated on the site of the existing Davis and Sabin Locks. Over its ten-year construction period, the new Soo Lock project will support over 1,000 quality jobs and an estimated residual effect of $559 million in labour income impacting the Sault Ste. Marie local economy.

The project has undergone many delays, but has now had full funding agreed. On January 19, 2022, the White House announced the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will put $479 million over five years toward the construction of the new lock, providing the remaining funding needed to complete the project — above and beyond the $480 million provided in FY2022.

The Army Corps is reconfiguring the inactive Davis and Sabin locks into a single large chamber similar to the existing Poe Lock, which is 1,200-foot long and 110-feet wide. It’s the only lock big enough to move the largest Great Lakes ships. A second super-sized lock will ensure that ore from the Minnesota iron range could still reach steel mills on the lower Great Lakes should the Poe Lock break down.

The upgrade project was originally authorized by Congress in 1986. It was reauthorized in 2018 after the Army Corps recalculated its economic feasibility. In 2016, a federal Homeland Security report suggested an unexpected six-month Poe Lock outage would wreak havoc on supply chains, plunge the country into a recession and cost 11 million jobs.

ALLOCATION — FUNDS USED/PROJECTED TO BE SPENT v Prior to FY2019: $64.2M v FY2020: $125.3M v FY2021: $169.7M v FY2022: $480M v FY2023-2030: $479M “After a hard-fought effort, we finally have full funding of the Corp’s budget to finish building the new lock at the Soo Locks,” U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow said on 19 January this year.

ECONOMIC IMPACT The project will have a positive economic impact on the region, with: v 1,240 jobs created on an annual basis v 600 direct jobs, 210 indirect jobs, 430 induced jobs; v 1,400,000 tonnes of limestone or granite; v 112,000 tonnes of American-made cement; and v 25,000 tonnes of American-made steel.