Great Lakes Ships

Spending HMT Will End Dredging Crisis

Using the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund for its intended purpose will end the dredging crisis on the Great Lakes declared a stone shipper at a briefing for the Great Lakes delegation in Washington, DC on April 2 hosted by Great Lakes Maritime Task Force.  “We need approximately $200m to clear the dredging backlog on the Great Lakes,” said Thomas Buck, President and Chief Executive Officer of Carmeuse Lime & Stone.  “The fund collects $1.1b annually, but only spends $700m.  That leaves a surplus of nearly $5b. It’s time to put the ‘trust’ back in the Trust Fund.” Carmeuse Lime & Stone operates three large stone quarries that ship via the Great Lakes.  In 2008, those quarries loaded 14 million tons of aggregate and fluxstone into Great Lakes freighters.  Buck used a sampling of vessel loadings to illustrate the negative impacts of the dredging crisis on Carmeuse.  “In June, a vessel with a designed carrying capacity of 28,300 net tons left our plant in Calcite, Michigan, with only a little more than 24,000 tons in her holds.  The dredging crisis cost us nearly 15 percent of the vessel’s carrying capacity.” Another vessel left Carmeuse’s Cedarville, Michigan, quarry with more than 4,400 tons of carrying capacity unused. The reason vessels cannot carry full loads is decades of inadequate funding for dredging.  The U.S

Largest Potential Lakes Project in Generation

Congress is considering the possible funding of the construction of a new lock at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, a half-billion dollar undertaking that would rank as the largest navigation infrastructure project on the Great Lakes in a generation. Construction of a new lock at “the Soo” would bring up to 250 jobs annually to northern Michigan and continue for a decade.  Estimated cost of the lock is about $475m

Great Lakes Shipping Returns to Normal

Shipping on the Great Lakes should be back to normal by early Monday evening, Canadian marine authorities said, as a 730-ft. freighter, which crashed into a lift bridge across the Welland Canal, has been towed away. "They're raising the bridge at the moment and they will have to make sure it (is secure) before telling the ships to move into the canal," said Sylvie Moncion, a spokeswoman for the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp., which operates the key marine route into central North America

Malfunction Underscores Need for Second Poe-Sized Lock

A malfunction of the Poe Lock at Sault Ste. Marie, , on September 24 has illustrated the pressing need for Congress to appropriate the funds to build another lock capable of handling the largest U.S.-Flag Great Lakes freighters. Although the vessel delays totaled only about three hours, had the problem been more severe, cargo movement on the Lakes would have slowed to a trickle. U.S.-Flag Lakers whose length and/or beam restrict them to the Poe Lock represent 70 percent of U.S

WRDA Passage to End Lakes Dredging Crisis

The end of the dredging crisis on the Great Lakes moved a giant step closer today when a key House committee approved legislation requiring the federal government to spend all the tax dollars it collects for dredging on dredging rather than use nearly half to balance the budget - at least on paper.  Section 2007 of H.R. 5892, the Water Resources Development Act of 2010, mandates that all tax revenues annually deposited in the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund (HMTF) be used to dredge the

Bi-national Study Highlights Green Advantages

A comprehensive report released today has defined the modal and environmental advantages of using marine shipping to transport goods in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway region. A study titled The Environmental and Social Impacts of Marine Transport in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway Region was conducted by Ontario transportation consultants Research and Traffic Group, and peer reviewed by independent experts in the U.S. and Canada

Halsey Appointed to Joint Management Committee for Thunder Bay

Dr. William Anderson, director of the Department of History, Arts and Libraries (HAL), today announced the appointment of State Archaeologist John R. Halsey to the Joint Management Committee administering the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary and Preserve off the coast of Alpena. Halsey, who represents Michigan on the federal-state committee, will serve a two-year term expiring Jan. 1, 2005. The other member of the Joint Management Committee is Daniel J

Kvaerner Masa-Yards Receives Contract

Kvaerner Masa Marine (KMM) and Masa-Yards Arctic Technology Center (MARC), both part of the Kvaerner Masa-Yards Group, were recently awarded a contract to provide ice breaking consulting services and model testing for the USCG Great Lakes Icebreaker currently being designed by Marinette Marine Corporation (MMC) a division of Manitowoc Marine Group. The new icebreaker will be named Mackinaw in honor of the heavy icebreaker that it is replacing. The new Mackinaw will be a

Lakes Leaders Declare Dredging State of Emergency

The Administration’s proposal to slash the Great Lakes dredging budget by 32 percent in FY12 has the Great Lakes shipping industry declaring a State of Emergency.  The Administration’s proposed appropriation for Lakes dredging next year will remove the smallest amount of sediment since the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers started keeping records more than half a century ago.  As a result, only 11 of the 83 U.S ports on the Great Lakes will be dredged.

LCA Endorses Government Report

U.S.-flag shipping on the Great Lakes provides efficient, safe, and environmentally sound transportation services to industries that are the backbone of the American economy finds a report released on February 12 by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration.   The U.S.-flag Lakes fleet is “competitive with other modes of freight transportation in the movement of dry-bulk commodities and appears to be adequately capitalized to meet current market