Stabenow: Infrastructure bill will fully fund Soo Locks, benefit Northern Michigan

SAULT STE. MARIE — Sen. Debbie Stabenow said a $479 million investment to fund the Soo Locks expansion project is just one of many benefits Northern Michigan will see from last year’s infrastructure bill.

The allocation, which was announced Wednesday, will fund the entirety of the long-anticipated project. Construction was authorized in 1986 but, until now, the Army Corps of Engineers has had to rely on yearly allocations to fund the work. In turn, that has resulted in delays, false starts, and uncertainty depending on the health of the national economy.

Stabenow’s office announced the apportionment about an hour before a virtual session with Northern Michigan and Upper Peninsula government leaders about the bill.

“This has been talked about for a long time … so this is very good news if we're talking about jobs,” she said at that meeting. “And most importantly, we are talking about actually getting that second lock so we don't have to worry about what happens to our economy, if something happens.”

A key component of the project includes constructing a new, larger “Poe” lock, paid for with federal funds, which will allow larger ships to pass through the Great Lakes. Stabenow said she visited the locks in August, while the Army Corps was deepening the channel leading up to the existing smaller locks slated for replacement. When she discussed funding with project leaders at that time, they confirmed that securing full funding for the project could help them in completing the job faster — up to two years faster, according to Stabenow and her staff Wednesday.

“The Soo Locks are nationally critical infrastructure, and their reliability is essential to U.S. manufacturing and national security,” said Kevin McDaniels, Detroit deputy district engineer for the Army Corps of Engineers. “A failure of the Poe Lock would have significant impacts to the U.S. economy, especially the steel industry.”

The new locks are expected to modernize the existing locks, which have some infrastructure that is about a century old and on “borrowed time,” Sen. Gary Peters, D-MI, said in a press release.

“The bipartisan infrastructure law is delivering for Michiganders with this significant investment in the Soo Locks — an economic and national security priority for Michigan and our nation,” he said.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, in a separate press release, also applauded the investment, stating the “locks are critical to facilitating trade and economic cooperation between our two peninsulas and Great Lakes neighbors.”

“I am grateful to our congressional delegation for fighting for this investment,” she said. “Together, we will continue finding ways to grow Michigan’s economy, create and protect good-paying jobs, and invest in every region of our great state.”

Beyond the Army Corps funding of the Soo Locks, the infrastructure bill also represents a 31% increase in federally allocated funds for Michigan, most of which will go to the state government, which will in turn apportion it out. One key component of that funding is $65 million to fund broadband development in rural areas.

The bill also included a $1 billion allocation toward the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, which helps fund projects aimed at protecting and improving freshwater resources in the multi-state region. The allotment constitutes the largest single contribution to that fund since the program began in 2010.

Meanwhile, the legislation also includes allocations for public transportation, per- and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) remediation, and shoreline erosion along the Great Lakes — all of which have been recurring issues among Northern Michigan communities.

“This has been talked about for years and years and years, but we were able to come together and get it done,” Stabenow said. “And so I want to make sure that every single dollar possible comes to your community and comes to Michigan."

This article originally appeared on The Sault News: Stabenow: Infrastructure bill will fully fund Soo Locks, benefit Northern Michigan