New Lock for Soo Locks and Dam, Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, St. Mary's River
Abstract
The U.S. Army Engineer District, Detroit (LRE) proposes construction of a new lock at the Soo Locks on the St. Mary's River near Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. The lock will replace the existing Davis and Sabin locks in the North Canal. Currently, the Poe Lock is the only facility at Soo Locks capable of handling the Great Lakes system's largest vessels. These large vessels account for more than half of the potential carrying capacity of the Great Lakes fleet. A laboratory model study was performed to evaluate the lock filling and emptying system and ice lockage procedures. It is expected that the new lock will have upper approach ice congestion problems similar to those experienced at the existing Soo Locks. A major objective of the ice tests in the physical model was to maximize ice lockage performance. The original design filling and emptying system was modified to achieve acceptable filling and emptying times. The total number of ports was reduced and structural baffles were installed on the upper and lower ports of the system to provide an even distribution of flow into and out of the chamber during filling and emptying. The permissible filling and emptying times based on maximum allowable hawser forces were 13.0 and 12.4 min, respectively. The lower ice valves brought the ice farther into the lock during ice drawing experiments although having the ice in direct contact with the lower miter gates would interfere with their operation. The upper ice valves were about equal to the combined use of filling valves and the manifolds in the upper miter gates in terms of ice flushing performance.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2005
- Accession Number
- ADA438018
Entities
People
- Andrew M. Tuthill
- John E. Hite Jr.
Organizations
- Engineer Research and Development Center