A new lock is being built at the Soo Locks which will be large enough to handle the 1,000-foot lakers that carry taconite from Minnesota and Michigan to steelmakers along the lower lakes. Currently the Poe Lock is the only one that can accommodate those ships, and it has been requiring increased maintenance. Equipment began to arrive last week to deepen the upstream channel above the decommissioned Davis and Sabin Locks, which will be replaced. That work will wrap up by November 2021. The new lock chamber is still being designed and could take until 2030 to open.
