Members of Congress from Michigan are prodding federal officials to finish an analysis of building a new navigational lock on the waterway linking Lake Superior with the other four Great Lakes.
Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow and Republican Rep. Bill Huizenga sent a letter Wednesday to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers about the lock system on the St. Marys River at Sault Ste. Marie. Shipping advocates want a second lock that could handle 1,000-foot freighters hauling iron ore and other commodities on the lakes.
Only the Poe Lock can accommodate those supersized ships now.
Stabenow and Huizenga say the Corps should quicken its study and base it on the relative costs of constructing a second lock versus transporting materials by truck or rail if the Poe Lock were disabled.
