Great Lakes shipping traffic about to start new season
Mar. 20—DULUTH — With the early opening of the Poe Lock at Sault Ste. Marie scheduled for Friday at 6 p.m., ships are beginning to stir from their short winter slumber across the Great Lakes.
The Duluth Seaway Port Authority says the first vessel to move in the Twin Pots is expected to be the Baie Comeau, which spent the winter at Duluth's Clure Public Marine Terminal.
The laker left its winter dock Wednesday afternoon and was moving to the CN iron ore docks in West Duluth to be loaded with taconite iron ore through the night. The vessel is scheduled to depart the port Thursday for the 25-hour journey across Lake Superior to the Soo Locks.
Jayson Hron, spokesperson for the Duluth Seaway Port Authority, said the Mesabi Miner could be the first ship to arrive in the Twin Ports from elsewhere, possibly by Sunday and also bound for the CN iron ore docks.
The Soo locks closed Jan. 16 — later than usual — thanks to balmy temperatures and are opening a few days ahead of the scheduled date of March 25. Hron said this is one of the shortest winter closed periods for Lake Superior since the mid-1970s, during a brief period when year-round shipping was attempted.
More than 4,500 vessels carrying up to 80 million tons of cargo pass through the Soo Locks annually. Iron ore, coal, wheat and limestone are the most frequently carried commodities.
Meanwhile, the 41st Annual "First Ship Contest," co-sponsored by Visit Duluth and the Duluth Seaway Port Authority, is underway. People can guess the date and time of the first oceangoing freighter to arrive in the Twin Port for the season. The entry deadline is Wednesday, March 20, at 11:59 p.m. Learn more or submit your guess at
The Duluth Seaway Port Authority has received a $7.6 million grant through the Minnesota Department of Transportation, part of $18 million in grants that went out this winter to ports statewide.
The Duluth project involves the property known as Duluth Lake Port, the old Capitol Elevator Company facility, on Rice's Point, which the Port Authority acquired in 2020. The project, which is still in the planning stages, includes hazardous materials abatement; demolition of existing buildings, including dilapidated grain elevators; recycling concrete from demolition for reuse onsite; conducting deck and access road restoration; and installiing utilities to create a four-acre laydown area.
The funding comes from the state's competitive Port Development Assistance Program. The funding also leverages $8.8 million in local and private funding, for a total construction program of $26.9 million for seven statewide projects.
"Minnesota's multimodal freight transportation system — including the state's network of river and Great Lakes ports — is one of Minnesota's strongest assets when it comes to economic development," MnDOT Commissioner Nancy Daubenberger said in a statement. "These projects are examples of how collaboration between local partners, enhanced by private-public investments in critical local transportation infrastructure, support economic development and job creation throughout the state."
This story was updated at 4:55 p.m., Wednesday, March 20, to correct the historical time frame for the shipping offseason. It was originally published at 1:53 p.m., Wednesday, March 20. The News Tribune regrets the error.
