Lakers & Salties

In the Shipyard: Winter Work

By GLSR Staff  |  Lakers & Salties, New Construction & Ship Repair
While the Great Lakes took on ice cover, the region’s shipyards went to work preparing vessels for the coming season. Winter work fills the yards and swells the workforce.

Some of the vessels undergo detailed inspections in drydock. Others undergo maintenance ranging from engine and navigation system upgrades to steel replacement on the hull and decks.

The U.S.-flag fleet invested nearly $83 million in their vessels at shipyards in New York, Ohio, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. The iron ore hauled from Lake Superior to steel mills in Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania is now going back into the self-unloaders to extend their sails.

Here’s a glimpse of what’s happening in regional shipyards.

Tim S. Dool is docked before ice forms at Heddle’s Thunder Bay Shipyard. The shipyard workers did alongside steel work on this Algoma Central Corp. vessel. Heddle has fulfilled major winter work contracts like vessel life extension work on the Canadian Coast Guard’s Amundsen.
McKeil Marine’s Alouette Spirit barge is drydocked at Heddle Shipyard in Hamilton, Ont. in February for a five-year survey, steel work, bow thruster overhaul and hull coatings. The same floating drydock was also used to service MT Sterling Energy for her five-year survey and stern tube conversion, from an oil-lubricated to water-lubricated bearings.
New hogbacks and steel are being installed in the cargo hold of a laker at Fraser Shipyard in Superior, Wisc.
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