Soo Lock update: Removing jacobsville sandstone from the channel

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Detroit District, has just released this beautiful photo of a large piece of jacobsville sandstone removed from the upper approach channel by Trade West Construction Co. as part of the Upstream Channel Deepening of the New Lock at the Soo project on in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.

Trade West is currently removing roughly 75 dump truck loads of material a day from the upstream channel, or 750 cubic yards per day.

The Soo Locks are situated on the St. Marys River at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan and allow vessels to transit the 21 foot elevation change at the St. Marys Falls Canal.

Over 85% of commodity tonnage through the Soo Locks is restricted by vessel size to the Poe Lock.

This new lock project will construct a second Poe-sized lock (110′ by 1,200′) on the site of the existing decommissioned Davis and Sabin locks.  

According to a 2015 Department of Homeland Security study on the impact of an unexpected Soo Locks closure, the Soo Locks are nationally critical infrastructure and the reliability of this critical node in the Great Lakes Navigation System is essential to U.S. manufacturing and National Security.