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.
New Lock for Soo Locks and Dam, Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, St. Mary's River
2005
135 pages
Report
No indication
English
Civil Engineering , Fluid Mechanics , Hydraulic models , Locks(Waterways) , Structural properties , Ice , Great lakes , Flushing , Michigan , Fleets(Ships) , Channels(Waterways) , Soo locks , Sault ste. marie , St. mary's river , Hawser forces , Ice drawing , Ice flushing , Lock filling and emptying system , Lock intake , Lock outlet
Locks at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan
Engineering Index Backfile | 1931
|Accident to Sault Ste. Marie locks
Engineering Index Backfile | 1890
The new ship canal and locks at Sault Sainte Marie
Engineering Index Backfile | 1911
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