Michigan’s Soo Locks project has reached 50% completion in its final construction phase, according to the US Army Corps of Engineers. On Tuesday, Sept. 29, it confirmed that the $3.219 billion project remains on track to be completed by 2030.This marks a significant milestone for the project, which kicked off in 2020. The 50% figure applies to Phase 3 alone. Phase 1, the upstream channel deepening, wrapped up in 2022. Phase 2, the upstream approach walls, followed in 2024. The final phase of the project is being carried out by joint-venture contractor Kokosing Alberici Traylor LLC, known as KAT, which signed the contract in July 2022. The Corps awarded the last remaining contract options in June 2025, and KAT has completed $975 million worth of work through the end of August.“Reaching the halfway point on this mega project is a testament to the dedication of the Corps of Engineers team and the joint-venture contractor Kokosing Alberici Traylor LLC (KAT). The progress made here is a direct reflection of the more than 600 people working on this project. They come to work every day committed to the successful completion of the new lock,” Corps of Engineers Integrated Project Office Chief Mick Awbrey told WXYZ-TV.Phase 3 is a significant part of the construction. Crews are building “cofferdams at each end of the lock, demolishing the existing Sabin Lock, filling in the existing Davis Lock, excavating bedrock, constructing the New Lock chamber walls and floor, fabrication and installation of miter gates, installation of mechanical and electrical systems, installation of an innovative hands-free mooring system, rehabilitating the downstream approach walls and constructing a new pump well”.At present, the focus is on the concrete. The mass concrete placement for the concrete walls, the lock floor and the new pump well is underway, with more than 600 people on the job. Steel structures are being fabricated offsite in parallel. The finished lock will take roughly 400,000 cubic yards.“If you were to build an average sidewalk that you see in a neighbourhood, with 400,000 cubic yards of concrete, you could build a sidewalk from Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, to Orlando, Florida. It’s a massive amount of concrete, and we are making progress every day,” Awbrey told the broadcaster. Through August, crews had placed 140,198 cubic yards, about 35% of the total. On the sidewalk map, that gets them almost to Dayton, Ohio.The new lock will match the Poe’s dimensions: 1,200 feet long, 110 feet wide and 32 feet deep. It is going up in the footprint of the Sabin Lock, which is coming down. The Corps ranks it among the highest-priority commercial navigation projects in the country. A second Poe-sized lock adds resilience to a facility that now leans on one, keeping raw materials moving to steel producers and protecting thousands of jobs, it argues. The agency also calls the project a flagship of its ‘Building Infrastructure, Not Paperwork’ initiative, which it describes as delivering faster and at lower cost.
