SAULT STE. MARIE - The slow building industry in the Upper Peninsula would have welcomed the construction of a new lock through the St. Mary's River - but the hoped-for federal money never came through this year.

Still, said Stanley Jacek, Soo-area engineer for the Army Corps of Engineers, the $3 million design work on the new lock was completed, readying the lock system for construction when the federal money does come through.

"We had enough money to take care of the design, and we thought we would have some left over to do some of the initial work, but the money wasn't there," Jacek said. The project, expected to cost $180 million and extend over five years, would start with the installation of cofferdams, followed by demolition of two old locks, then installation of a new single wider and longer lock.

There are currently four locks at the Soo: The largest and most important is the 1,000-foot long by 105-foot wide Poe Lock, which was completed in 1968 and handles the biggest freighters.

Also at the Soo are the MacArthur Lock (completed in 1944, 800 ft. long by 80 ft. wide) and the smaller Davis and Sabin locks, which were built more than 80 years ago.

Plans call for removing the Davis and Sabin locks and replacing them with a larger lock, identical in size to the Poe. Currently major maintenance that's performed on the Poe Lock is done in the winter. A new lock would allow for summertime maintenance, and give the lock system a backup in case of mechanical failure.

And mechanical failure would be catastrophic to Great Lakes shipping: Not only do coal and wheat go through the locks, 70 percent of all raw materials used in the U.S. steel industry go through the passage.

The locks are necessary because they permit ships to travel around a 21-foot waterfall on the St. Mary's River. Lake Superior is 21 feet higher than the other Great Lakes. Approximately 5,000 boats and ships use the locks every year.

In an era of federal budget cutting, it appears as if funding for the project will be coming in piecemeal. The Soo is in the district of Congressman Bart Stupak. His press secretary, Dave Sauceda, said $4 million to start construction on the new lock passed the U.S. House Water Development Subcommittee on July 10, and is now before the full House Appropriations Committee.

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT at the Soo Locks are the MacArthur, Poe, Davis and Sabin locks. Plans call for a $180 million project to demolish the Davis and Sabin Locks, which are more than 80 years old, replacing them with a single lock the size of the largest lock, the Poe.