Can’t Stop The Cargo

Peter Hirthe, Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation, USA, details the binational maritime gateway and the technology utilised to keep cargo moving safely and reliably.

The St. Lawrence Seaway directly serves an eight-state, two-province region that accounts for one-quarter of the US gross domestic product (GDP), one-half of North America’s manufacturing and services industries, and is home to nearly one-quarter of the continent’s population. On its own, the Great Lakes region of North America would represent the world’s third largest economy with a foundation built on mining, manufacturing, steelmaking, and agriculture. The Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway System is the binational maritime gateway between this economically powerful region and the world, offering a safe, reliable, and sustainable supply chain for waterborne commerce. Since the Seaway opened in 1959, more than 3 billion t of cargo valued at over US$450 billion has transited the binational waterway. The St. Lawrence Seaway is comprised of 15 locks that lift and lower vessels the height difference equivalent to a 60-storey building, between the Atlantic Ocean and Lake Erie.

Seven of these locks are located between Montreal and Lake Ontario, including the two US locks in Massena, New York. The other eight locks of the Welland Canal are adjacent to Niagara Falls, transiting vessels between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. Administration of the binational waterway is shared by two entities, the US Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation within the US Department of Transportation, and the Canadian St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation, a not-for-profi t corporation established by the Government of Canada.

There are over 100 commercial ports of varying capacity and capability within the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway System stretching from Montreal, Quebec to Duluth, Minnesota. Each port has maritime-purposed infrastructure and over 40 of them offer intermodal connectivity to either a Class 1 or short line railroad and/or the interstate highway system, providing access well into the heartland of North America. The experienced stevedore services offered throughout the system handle a cargo mixture of bulk, breakbulk, project cargo, and containers. The primary global markets served include, but are not limited to, Europe, North Africa, South America, and the Middle East.

Annual commerce on the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway System typically exceeds 180 million t and serves US farmers, manufacturing workers, miners, and commercial interests throughout the Great Lakes region. With capacity to grow, the St. Lawrence Seaway provides a simpler, more direct, water-centric transportation route to shippers doing business with the Great Lakes region. Virtually every type of bulk and general cargo commodity moves on the Great Lakes Seaway System, including iron ore for the US steel industry; limestone for construction and steel industries; coal for power generation and steel production; grain exports from US farms; general cargo such as iron, steel products, and heavy machinery; and cement, fertilizer, salt, and stone aggregates for agriculture and industry. Additionally, the Seaway has emerged as a critical transportation route for the shipment of large components essential to the wind energy industry.

Safety and reliability, the driving forces

The continued safety and reliability of the St. Lawrence Seaway is the foundation upon which increases in maritime cargo can be promoted and accommodated. The Seaway is one of the world’s safest waterways and that safety record continues to improve. Over the past 25 years, the average number of international vessel incidents in the Seaway has decreased signifi cantly. From 1996 - 2006, the average number of incidents was 19 per year. However, from 2007 - 2020, the average number of incidents declined to only six per year and the 2020 navigation season was one of the safest on record with only four incidents. This positive development can be attributed to several factors, including the US-Canadian Enhanced Seaway Inspection Program, the use of the Seaway’s automatic identifi cation system (AIS) vessel traffi c management technology beginning in 2002, the use of the Seaway’s hands-free mooring system beginning in 2018, the well-trained and skilled GLS lock operations and maintenance staff, and a major fleet renewal programme implemented by many of the Seaway’s commercial carriers. Since the Seaway’s opening in 1959, it has consistently maintained a near-perfect system reliability rate above 99% for commercial users. In the US sector of the waterway during the 2020 navigation season (1 April - 30 December 2020), the US Seaway workforce operated and maintained the waterway and lock system at a reliability rate of 99.3% and lock availability rate of 99.96%, despite the challenges of operating during a pandemic. This high mark of success is due primarily to the effi cient management and operations of the locks and control of vessel traffi c. Global customers from nearly 50 countries return each year to use the Seaway because of the waterway’s strong safety record, effi cient operations, and near-perfect reliability rate.

Technology to keep the cargo moving

The Seaway leverages technology to improve system utilisation. State of the art technology is transforming Seaway operations and allowing for gains in competitiveness. The list of cutting-edge technologies implemented or soon to be introduced by the Seaway is impressive. It includes the AIS, the draft information system (DIS), and the hands-free mooring technology. Mandatory Global Positioning System-based (GPS) AIS carriage became effective on the St. Lawrence Seaway on 31 March 2003. The Seaway became the fi rst inland waterway in the Western Hemisphere to implement an operational AIS vessel traffi c services system. All commercial vessels transiting in Seaway waters from Montreal to mid-Lake Erie are capable of ship-to-ship, ship-to-shore, and shore-to-ship communication under all weather conditions on a 24/7 basis. A major enhancement to the AIS occurred in July 2012 with implementation of the DIS. DIS is an onboard technology, providing Seaway mariners with real-time information on current and projected distances between a vessel’s keel and the river bottom using real-time, threedimensional displays. The Seaway is the fi rst inland waterway in the world to implement this technology. Vessels with DIS technology are permitted to sail at a draft of up Figure 1. Hands-free mooring unit fully operational at Eisenhower and Snell Locks. to 3 in. above the published

maximum, which could allow for transport of as much as 360 t of additional cargo per voyage. AIS and DIS have greatly enhanced the safety and effi ciency of the waterway and have improved Great Lakes Seaway System maritime security. By pairing these navigation technologies, precise vessel traffi c management has been enhanced more than ever, and ships equipped with these technologies can travel the Seaway more safely and with more cargo.

The US and Canadian Seaway Corporations are currently assessing how to improve and enhance their joint vessel traffi c management system. Working with the Department of Transportation’s Volpe National Transportation Systems Centre, studies are underway on how to enhance the existing AIS real-time data to forecast vessel traffi c movements farther into the future. This technology promises to be a ground-breaking advance in the way the Seaway manages, schedules, and predicts vessel traffi c throughout the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway System and will provide associated environmental, economic, and mobility benefi ts. Both the US and Canadian Seaway entities have been investing heavily in infrastructure rehabilitation and modernisation. Since 2009, the US Seaway has invested nearly US$180 million, and together with the Canadian Seaway, more than US$1 billion has been invested in rebuilding and improving the lock and channel infrastructure. Major infrastructure projects completed over that time period included maintenance dredging, lock miter gate and culvert valve machinery upgrades, culvert valve replacements, hands-free mooring (HFM) installation at the locks, gate-lifter upgrades, miter gate rehabilitation, tugboat replacements, and various other structural and equipment repairs and/or replacements. One of these projects, the HFM system, has been in use at all US and Canadian Seaway locks since June 2019. The new technology allows commercial ships to transit safely and effi ciently, while also enhancing workplace and operational safety conditions. In May 2015, the Seaway’s HFM technology was recognised by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) with the ‘Promising Innovation in Transport Award’. This technology has been used previously to secure ships to dock walls, but this is the fi rst time it is being applied to secure ships through a lock transit. The HFM system uses vacuum pads, each of which provides up to 20 t of holding force, mounted on vertical rails inside the lock chamber wall to secure the ship during the lockage process as it is raised or lowered while keeping it at a fi xed distance from the lock wall. The new technology is saving shippers time and money, and allowing more ships, globally, to utilise the waterway.

The combined Canadian and US reinvestment in Seaway infrastructure over the last decade is impressive, and when adding the amount of both public and private Great Lakes Seaway stakeholder capital investments since 2009, that total grows to almost US$7 billion. Some of those private investments have included fleet renewal programmes undertaken by shipowners who transit the St. Lawrence Seaway. As the most energy effi cient way to move cargo with the lowest carbon footprint, the newly-built ships have an important role to play enhancing trade in a highly sustainable manner. Maritime navigation is one of the most – and in many cases the most – environmentally friendly modes of transportation by various measures. According to the most recent study on the subject, Great Lakes Seaway commercial navigation carrying 1 t of cargo for 1 km emits 19% fewer greenhouse gases (GHG) than rail and 533% fewer GHGs than trucks. With superior fuel effi ciency and fewer GHG emissions per tonne than trucking or rail, Seaway shipping leads the way in environmentally smart transportation; it is North America’s green transportation corridor.

The St. Lawrence Seaway was conceived and built to be a bulk commodity transportation route. Today, it has realised that vision and is one of the safest and most effi cient bulk commodity marine transportation routes in the world.

Figure 2. Gates opening at Eisenhower Lock.

Figure 3. Aerial view of the St. Lawrence Seaway.