In the final weeks of the 2025 shipping season, vessels have been experiencing delays due to ice cover across the Great Lakes.
With these kinds of ice-driven delays being a common issue for both ships and the Soo Locks, a partnership between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Interlake Steamship Company is looking to find ways mitigate ice buildup in the locks.
The Soo Locks Ice Mitigation Project has been running since 2023. After building a model of the locks scaled down to the size of a football field, the team has been attempting different methods to try and avoid ice buildup that stops ships from making it through the locks.
The Joseph L. Block clears the Soo locks channel, marking the start of the Great Lakes shipping season on March 22 (Teresa Homsi / WCMU) pic.twitter.com/3hKsnomBOQ
— Rick Brewer (@Reporter_Brewer) March 23, 2024
One of the biggest problems in studying ice is how it behaves differently depending on different conditions. That's according to Mollie Mahoney, the senior project manager behind the ice mitigation project. She told WCMU that due to the struggles with ice, the most effective way to study it is through the physical model and artificial ice materials.
"Ice begins being an issue at the Soo Locks typically in January time frame, and so ice gets stuck to our walls in the approach and lock chamber and needs to be removed in order for vessels to fit into the chamber," Mahoney explained. "There's only five feet of clearance, two and a half feet on each side of the Poe Lock. And so even a small amount of ice in the chamber can be problematic."
Mahoney continued to mention how ice being pushed into the chamber can prevent vessels from fitting into the locks.
"We'll have to back the ship out and then put just a complete lockage of ice through and then the ship can come in. And sometimes that ice gets stuck behind the gates and they can't fully open the gates," she said. "So, if you can't fully open the gates, then you can't get a ship in because there's just not enough space," she said.
Over 7,000 trips through the locks are performed annually. Notably, these passages include 100% of the country's iron ore, a $500 billion value. Delays in shipping can prevent timely deliveries to steel mills.
“We’ve all spent more than our fair share of time stuck in ice—either waiting for someone to get through the lock or being the one trying to make it through,” said Captain Brad Newland of Interlake Steamship Company in a release. “Anything we can do to save time is a win, not just for Interlake but for the entire industry.”
The study is scheduled to conclude this summer, with any findings potentially being implemented onto the Poe and upcoming new Soo Lock.
