The St. Lawrence Seaway's shipping season opened on Tuesday, with the MONTREALAIS being the first upbound passage through the Welland Canal, and the SPRUCEGLEN passing upbound at Montreal to be the first vessel into the Montreal-Lake Ontario section of the Seaway.
The global economic downturn has made it impossible to predict how the shipping season will turn out. Many ships are not expected to sail, but that could change depending on how soon President Barack Obama's stimulus plan gets put into action. Locally, the Erie Western-Pennsylvania Port Authority has a wishlist of $45 million worth of stimulus projects, including a $22 million expansion of the Mountfort Terminal, and $12 million for new roofs at Erie Shipbuilding, which remains shut down with no immediate prospects of reopening.
I will post photos from the Top Hat ceremony at the Welland Canal, marking the MONTREALAIS as the first vessel through the system for the 2009 season, later today or tomorrow.
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