The multi-million-dollar project involves repairs at the old Union Carbide Dock seawall in Sault Ste. Marie, cleanup of legacy pollution from calcium carbide manufacturing, improvement of mooring and bulk storage abilities, and the reopening of a community park and boardwalk with public access to the St. Marys River.
There will be an improved seawall and mooring space to accommodate boats and ships from pleasure craft to 1,000-foot bulk freighters. The dock will be open for vessel maintenance, refueling, and dumping wastewater.
One element of the project includes providing shoreside power infrastructure for ships docked at the port to have electricity from a nearby hydropower plant without needing to run their engines, which reduces greenhouse gas emissions and improves local air quality.
Officials with the Sault Tribe of Chippewa also said their community will benefit from the site redevelopment when their primary fishing grounds along the river reopen after eight years.
“The dock has been talked about for decades and is a critical part of the Sault and our waterway,” Sault Ste. Marie City Engineer David Boyle said in a statement.
“Looking forward to having a working port again and everyone is anxious to get back to fishing and enjoying our waterfront.”
The city expects the project to bring nearly $35 million in capital investment and create the equivalent of as many of 30 full-time jobs – a major payoff for what was a longtime problem.
Issues first arose in the late 1990s when sink holes appeared in the old dock. The city ordered in 2016 a full structural report, which showed 57% of the front-row piles were destroyed.
Wave action and ice damage on the St. Marys River over the years exposed the piles to air beneath the dock, leading to rot. The city closed the site after learning the dock was too precarious even for pedestrians, and the U.S. Coast Guard added further safety restrictions.
Officials additionally closed the adjacent James A. Alford Waterfront Park in 2016 as they sought funding to clean up pollution and overhaul the site.
The property served as a calcium carbide manufacturing site from the 1890s to 1960s before the buildings were demolished and the land transferred to the city in 1967. Pipelines moved petroleum from the dock to bulk storage areas from 1961 to 1987.
Investigators uncovered both petroleum compounds and metals in the soil.
Funding for the enormous cleanup and infrastructure repair project came from all levels of government.
The U.S. Department of Transportation contributed the largest portion at $20.7 million, followed by $5 million from a Michigan Legislature appropriation, and a variety of other multi-million-dollar grants.
The site is immediately adjacent to the Lake Superior State University’s Center for Freshwater Research and Education and not far downstream from the historic Saint Marys Falls Hydropower Plant owned by Cloverland Power Cooperative.
