Mac Lock

Discussion board focusing on Great Lakes Shipping Question & Answer. From beginner to expert all posts are welcome.
GuestA

Re: Mac Lock

Unread post by GuestA »

Boats that fit the Mac Lock could use the Davis Lock when they are empty since the Davis is shallower than the Mac. An arrangement that could keep boats on the move, loaded boats use the Mac, empty ones use the Davis. Getting the Mac back open in the time they did shows the preparation The Corp has for keeping the locks operating. If the Poe were to go down, a good number of boats would still lock through the Mac. Quite a few would be ones that are usually held up and sent through the Poe for whatever reason. In the mean time if the Poe were to go down, The Corp would be on top of the problem getting it fixed and the shipping companies would just have to adapt to the temporary change. As was posted, a push for a new lock has been going on for over 3 decades. So has a lot of changes to the face of shipping. Fleets aren't close to running at capacity, there are viable boats that remain tied up all year long, other hulls that sit in long term disuse or sent to scrap. It certainly doesn't show the urgency for a new lock. There are the boats that are limited to using just the Poe Lock, but the companies knew of that risk when they designed and built them. When the current Poe Lock was on the drawing board, the shippers lobbied The Corp of Engineers to increase the size of the Poe to what it is so they could have vessels up to the 1000 footers. So really the argument for a new lock looks to be more about convenience especially in these times when commerce on the lakes is declining.
Guest

Re: Mac Lock

Unread post by Guest »

Guest wrote:Very indicative of the economy when the Mac lock can be closed for 19 days and only 103 ships were delayed a total of 166 hours. 'Additional delays were experienced by the shipping companies as their vessels slowed down in the system or were holding at dock facilities to minimize the time they waited at the Soo Locks.' I thought this would have caused a bigger problem.

The impact of this closure was mitigated by the simple fact that every ship passing through the Soo Locks could still transit through the larger Poe Lock. If this situation had been reversed, however, the impact would have been far greater and that is the primary argument for a new lock that has been going on for the last 30+ years. If the Poe Lock was to be shut down for an extended period of time I would expect to see a series of shuttle runs being made by MacArthur Lock sized vessels to transfer cargo between the US flagged super ships caught in Lake Superior and to those below the locks. Giving the length of the closure such an event could prompt the granting of special exemptions to allow Canadian flagged ships to carry cargoes between US ports or at least participate in any transshipments.
Denny

Re: Mac Lock

Unread post by Denny »

So with 19 days to repair the Mac Lock and a total of 103 vessels that were delayed and it being 166 hours lost in delays, does this still fuel the questions and needs for a new lock to be built then at the Soo? I suppose that it probably does warrant such a case and a need to have a new lock built should something like this ever once happen again. They have had longer delays then this during the winter and early Spring time due to ice conditions up that way.
Guest

Re: Mac Lock

Unread post by Guest »

Very indicative of the economy when the Mac lock can be closed for 19 days and only 103 ships were delayed a total of 166 hours. 'Additional delays were experienced by the shipping companies as their vessels slowed down in the system or were holding at dock facilities to minimize the time they waited at the Soo Locks.' I thought this would have caused a bigger problem.
Denny

Re: Mac Lock

Unread post by Denny »

The Algoma Guardian was downbound in the Mac Lock earlier today and the Burns Harbor was also locking down in the Poe Lock at the same time. The Mesabi Miner was waiting below the Poe for the Burns Harbor to exit and they would take the Poe Lock next. Good to see and glad to hear that the Mac Lock is now back up and running again. I am sure that folks at the Soo and many others are now breathing a much sigh of relief now that the Mac is back again!
Guest

Re: Mac Lock

Unread post by Guest »

Just heard: Mac lock is back up and runing.
Guest

Re: Mac Lock

Unread post by Guest »

hausen wrote:
Guest wrote:
mhillm wrote:Last season (2014-2015) there were 7,284 lockages.

10,000 is a rather generous estimate. ;)
Do the tour boats use the Mac and Poe ? If we only include commercial freight movements how many would there be ? 7,284 still amounts to about 25 per day which seems high.
Duluth-Superior has been averaging about 900 visits per season by commercial freight vessels since 2010. Thunder Bay has been getting roughly 400. Best guess at Presque Isle/Marquette is roughly 400, Two Harbors roughly 300, Silver Bay roughly 200. If you add those up, double the total, subtract a few since some of Presque Isle's loads don't necessarily transit the Soo locks on a 1:1 per trip ratio, subtract a few for vessels that visited multiple Lake Superior ports per round-trip lockage through the Soo, and add a few for ships that visit Essar Algoma without venturing further onto Lake Superior, you get a rough estimate of somewhere around 4,000 transits by commercial freight vessels each season during recent years. The rest of the total is probably transits by non-freight commercial vessels like tugs traveling light or towing dredge or construction barges, government vessels, and various commercial passenger vessels (like locks tour boats).
That works out to about 14 per day based on a 9 and 1/2 month season. Seems like a more reasonable number. I'm not sure why they always quote 10,000 per year. That number lacks context.
Guest

Re: Mac Lock

Unread post by Guest »

From Jacques Lesstrang's book, "Lake Carriers", in 1974 there were 13,120 vessel passages through the American locks, while the Canadian lock had 3,255 passages.
hausen
Posts: 803
Joined: July 2, 2010, 1:36 pm

Re: Mac Lock

Unread post by hausen »

Guest wrote:
mhillm wrote:Last season (2014-2015) there were 7,284 lockages.

10,000 is a rather generous estimate. ;)
Do the tour boats use the Mac and Poe ? If we only include commercial freight movements how many would there be ? 7,284 still amounts to about 25 per day which seems high.
Duluth-Superior has been averaging about 900 visits per season by commercial freight vessels since 2010. Thunder Bay has been getting roughly 400. Best guess at Presque Isle/Marquette is roughly 400, Two Harbors roughly 300, Silver Bay roughly 200. If you add those up, double the total, subtract a few since some of Presque Isle's loads don't necessarily transit the Soo locks on a 1:1 per trip ratio, subtract a few for vessels that visited multiple Lake Superior ports per round-trip lockage through the Soo, and add a few for ships that visit Essar Algoma without venturing further onto Lake Superior, you get a rough estimate of somewhere around 4,000 transits by commercial freight vessels each season during recent years. The rest of the total is probably transits by non-freight commercial vessels like tugs traveling light or towing dredge or construction barges, government vessels, and various commercial passenger vessels (like locks tour boats).
Guest

Re: Mac Lock

Unread post by Guest »

Yes the tour boats do use American side. Usually up one way and down the other.
Guest

Re: Mac Lock

Unread post by Guest »

mhillm wrote:Last season (2014-2015) there were 7,284 lockages.

10,000 is a rather generous estimate. ;)
Do the tour boats use the Mac and Poe ? If we only include commercial freight movements how many would there be ? 7,284 still amounts to about 25 per day which seems high.
mhillm

Re: Mac Lock

Unread post by mhillm »

Last season (2014-2015) there were 7,284 lockages.

10,000 is a rather generous estimate. ;)
Guest

Re: Mac Lock

Unread post by Guest »

The tour boats probably account for better than half the movements. Listen to St Mary's river radio on line and here how much traffic there is. Canada handles most of the pleasure craft.
mhillm

Re: Mac Lock

Unread post by mhillm »

The Davis is not deep enough for modern freight vessels and its 1914 operating machinery requires a bit of pampering, not to mention that the lock operations crew have their hands pretty full working on the repairs to the MacArthur Lock.
Guest

Re: Mac Lock

Unread post by Guest »

Today's news indicates 10,000 annual movements through the Soo locks. That number seems outdated. That was probably the traffic volume from 40+ years ago. Assuming a nine and a half month season, that averages to about 35 movements per day. I think the actual number is less than half that. Do we have updated stats ?
Guest

Re: Mac Lock

Unread post by Guest »

Why can't they use the Davis while the Mac is down?
Guest

Re: Mac Lock

Unread post by Guest »

Just heard on Soo radio that the Mac will probably be down 10 days or so.
Guest

Re: Mac Lock

Unread post by Guest »

From what I see on ais all the ships are Poe lockers except the Algoma Guardian.
mhillm

Re: Mac Lock

Unread post by mhillm »

Yup - looking like non-stop boats until at least 7:30 - 8 p.m.
Guest

Mac Lock

Unread post by Guest »

Mac lock is down big traffic jam at the soo
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