The US Army Corps of Engineers has awarded a $53 million contract to Trade West Construction of Mesquite, Nevada to deepen the upstream approach to the Soo Locks as part of a plan to build a new navigation lock at the Soo.
The dredging work is expected to take approximately two years to accomplish and will be followed by phases two and three of the project, which are still in the design phase and involve rehabilitation of the upstream approach walls and construction of the new lock chamber and rehabilitation of downstream approach walls.
Contingent on funding, the new 110-foot by 1,200-foot lock could be completed over the next seven to ten years at an estimated cost of nearly $1 billion. It will be built on the site of the smaller and already decommissioned Davis and Sabin locks.
