Seven Ships Laid up at Duluth-Superior

The Port of Duluth-Superior said it will welcome seven ships for winter layup this year.

 

The firs tvessel Indiana Harbor laid up early on November 3 for a repowering project is already underway at Fraser Shipyards on the Herbert C. Jackson, in dry dock since early December. 

 

The Soo Locks at Sault Ste. Marie are set to close at midnight on Friday, January 15. By then, four more wintering vessels are expected to have arrived in the Twin Ports beginning Thursday morning with the anticipated arrival of the Edwin H. Gott, followed Friday or later by the American Century, the Kaye E. Barker and the Philip R. Clarke.

 

The last laker, the thousand-footer Paul R. Tregurtha, is making one or two late season, intra-lake deliveries of iron ore before arriving beneath the Aerial Bridge next week and officially marking the end of the 2015 Great Lakes shipping season in the Twin Ports.

 

The last saltie of the season, Federal Bering, departed Duluth on December 18; the St. Lawrence Seaway closed on December 31.

 

While ships’ crews will take the next few weeks off, there is no real ‘down time’ on the waterfront. Hundreds of workers – engineers, welders, pipefitters, mechanics, electricians and others –will spend the next eight weeks performing maintenance and repair work so these vessels are ready to sail when the Soo Locks reopen on March 25 and the 2016 Great Lakes-Seaway shipping season gets underway. 

 

The Jackson’s conversion is part of $110 million that U.S. vessel operators will spend on maintaining/modernizing ships during this offseason, according to Lake Carriers’ Association. Repairs and maintenance work will constitute $60 million of that total while the rest will be taken up by special project work, such as repowering or installing exhaust scrubbers.