US Great Lakes Fleet Invests $83 Million in Maintenance

This year, U.S.-flagged Great Lakes shipping companies will spend nearly $83 million for annual vessel maintenance and upgrades, according to trade group the Lake Carriers’ Association (LCA).

The winter ship repair work programs are performed annually to help keep iron ore, stone and cement moving on the Great Lakes during the nine-month operating season from March through January, when the Soo Locks are open for business. Work will range from engine and navigation system upgrades to steel replacement on the hulls and decks of the vessels.

The same iron ore these vessels hauled from Lake Superior ports during the summer that was turned into steel in Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania will now go back into the large self-unloading ships. “The Great Lakes Navigation System is truly interdependent. From the mines that produce the bulk materials, to the ports which deliver and receive products, to the U.S.-flag ships that move the material to production facilities, to the end products being used to make our lives better and more efficient. The jobs sustained by this system are vital to the economy,” said Jim Weakley, President of the Lake Carriers’ Association.

The repair schedules create jobs for hundreds of workers in Great Lakes states. Wisconsin shipyards will get $41 million in work, Ohio $37 million, Pennsylvania $4 million and New York $1 million, LCA said.

Two shipyards in the Great Lakes were specially designed to handle 1,000-foot-long vessels that are 105-feet wide. Some of those vessels will be removed from the water and placed on blocks so the underwater hull can be inspected and painted. Others will have their engines lifted out and replaced with new.