Part of the Soo Locks will open early this year.
LeighAnn Ryckeghem is the operations manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Soo Locks office and tells us the waterways close each winter for maintenance. The Army Corps is going to open the Poe Lock for the coming season on March 22, a few days earlier than planned.
“We received a request for early opening from industry just due to the demands of the supply chain of iron ore,” Ryckeghem said. “In doing that, we take into consideration the ice conditions and the weather that we’ve had as well as our maintenance repairs, and we were able to accelerate where needed and we’ve gotten a lot of our repairs completed just due to the warmer temps that we’ve had. That’s been helpful for us.”
Ryckeghem says if winters continue being warm, then early reopenings could happen again. Mild winters mean the crews can do maintenance work faster.
The locks officially closed on January 16. During the ten-week shutdown, maintenance projects included structural inspections and the installation of lifting lugs on an upstream gate, among other things.
Ryckeghem says while the Poe Lock will open on the 22nd, the MacArthur Lock will remain closed until April 24.
When the Poe Lock reopens at 6:30 p.m. on March 22, you can watch live on Facebook. People will also be able to gather in person to watch the first vessel pass through. Ryckeghem says it’s a yearly tradition.
