Great lakes shipping season starts early

Superior Telagram -- At 7 a.m. March 21, the locks at Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., open, signaling the start of the commercial shipping season. The opening allows Great Lakes freighters to pass around the falls in the St. Marys River 24 hours a day, seven days a week until Jan. 15.

The locks are opening early after the Corps received several requests from the shipping community and their customers to open early due to “an improved business climate” and to replenish critically low iron ore and coal inventories. After careful consideration and coordination with agencies involved with determining the winter commercial shipping operations the Corps

made the decision to open on March 21 instead of March 25.