SLSDC 02-03
Contact: Tim Downey
Tel: (202) 366-0091
Friday, March 07, 2003
Seaway
2003 Navigation Season Opens March 31
The St. Lawrence Seaway System will officially open on Monday, Mar. 31,
2003. U.S. Department of Transportation's Saint Lawrence Seaway
Development Corporation (SLSDC) Administrator Albert Jacquez and his Canadian
counterpart, President and CEO Guy Véronneau, of The St. Lawrence Seaway
Management Corporation (SLSMC), will mark the occasion at the St. Lambert Lock
on the outskirts of Montreal with brief statements to officials from the
maritime industry, government, the media and the local public.
Richard Le Hir, President and CEO,
The Shipping Federation of Canada and Don Morrison, President, Canadian
Shipowners Association will also present remarks.
Originally set for March 25, the opening was
delayed for six days because of heavy ice in several areas of the river as well
as commercial navigation safety and environmental concerns.
Seaway officials note this is the first delay since the Seaway’s
inaugural year of operation in 1959.
The 15 locks on the Seaway from Montreal to Lake
Erie near Buffalo, N.Y. permit ocean-going vessels and Lakers to enter and exit
the Great Lakes through the 190-mile long Montreal-Lake Ontario section of the
St. Lawrence River. The SLSDC owns
and operates two of the locks -- Eisenhower and Snell -- near its Operations
Center in Massena. The other 13 are
owned by the Canadian government and operated by the SLSMC.
The new season marks the mandatory use of the Automatic Identification
System (AIS) from St. Lambert to Long Pointe, Ontario on mid-Lake Erie.
A shipboard broadcasting transponder system operating in the VHF maritime
band, AIS transmits and receives ship information such as identification,
position, speed, heading to other ships and to shore.
Based on Global Positioning System (GPS) and differential GPS technology,
AIS communications protocols integrate fully into the Seaway Traffic Management
System and its three Vessel Traffic Centers.
“The opening of the new 2003 navigation season is the appropriate
moment to renew our commitment to providing industry and the public the safest
inland waterway possible,” said Administrator Jacquez.
“With the successful introduction of AIS last summer on a trial basis,
I am confident that it will live up to our demanding expectations of increased
safety, security and efficiency for our stakeholders.”
Mr. Véronneau concurs, stating “we have undertaken a number of
projects over the course of the last five years that are beginning to yield real
dividends. AIS is one example of
our commitment to a modern Seaway System that will provide shippers with a cost
effective marine transportation route.”
Maritime commerce on the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway System annually
generates more than 150,000 U.S. jobs, $4.3 billion in personal income, $3.4
billion in transportation-related business revenue, and $1.3 billion in federal,
state and local taxes. The
Seaway’s economic impact for Canada is equally significant, serving as the
gateway to a region producing two-thirds of that nation’s industrial output
and generating tens of thousands of jobs.
Last year’s traffic tonnage
totaled more than 41 million metric tons on the Seaway and 3,865 ship transits
in the 40-week season.
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