Behind the Scenes of a $3 Billion Megaproject (Soo Locks Tour)
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 15 сен 2024
- The U.S. government is spending billions of dollars to build a new lock in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. The Army Corps of Engineers let me past the fence, and taught me what's going on. Even if you've been to the Soo Locks, I'd bet you've never seen it like this.
Many special thanks to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for hosting me, and for the thorough review of the footage.
✨ Want to support my work? Well, hey, thank you so much. You can learn more about how to keep this thing going at www.alexisdahl...
Find Me Elsewhere:
• Find stickers, hats, and other merchandise related to these videos: www.alexisdahl....
• Want to get semi-monthly e-mails about my latest videos and other happenings? You can sign up here: www.alexisdahl....
• Want to work together or learn more about my work? Contact me at www.alexisdahl....
• On Instagram, I upload nature photos, plus odds and ends: / alexis.writes
Love it. I'm an engineer on the MV Indiana Harbor that was coming into the lock while you were filming. Wish I knew you were there that day!
I was the 3rd Assistant Engineer on your ship for 3 months in 2021, how is the Starboard Inboard M/E and is Ralph Biggs still the Chief?
@alexander10000000 Ralph is chief and all the main engines are running pretty good even if each one does have some of its own individual little quirks
@zachmaster426 excellent, that checks out with the main engines. Loved working under Ralph, he was an excellent Chief. Also loved his hunting stories.
I was present in 1981? when the Indiana Harbor was christened. So cool to see her on here.
@@electricmick357 She is a great ship. Would sail on her anytime.
I’m sure you must grasp the enormity of how highly your videos are regarded to be given the access that you got. (Tony Yeley, MN)
That boat's horn was perfect timing
There are a lot of great clips in this video... but in all honesty, that one is one of my favorites. 😂
@@AlexisDahl oh yea definitely I'm still watching just going over the hierarchy of the ships now! Thank you I live in Washington State near Mt Rainier of feel in love with geology and the geology of the great lakes because of you!!!!!
Yeah but the James R. Barker horn is even better
@@majobis Unfortunately the James R Baker was not available 🤣🤣
My wife and I did the Soo Locks boat tour about 2 years ago and I told her I was 'Totally nerding out' and she said, "I'm not even a nerd and I'M nerding out!" Lifelong Michigander and had never done it. I'll do it again.
I'm a retired engineer, and I love hearing someone who's competent and enthusiastic explaining the details of their complex engineering project. Great questions by the way!
This whole thing is fascinating but the engineer, Rachel, she did an excellent job explaining everything. Good work Alexis.
I couldn't agree more! I had such a great time learning from her.
Living in Michigan, I've seen the Locks many times. But never have I learned so much before this video. You were handed a golden opportunity and you shared it with us. That's beyond awesome.
This video could have easily been a superficial marketing fluff and still been worth a watch but the level of nerdy detail and interesting questions from the hosts and answers from the experts pushes it into another category of coolness. Plus great humor throughout. Thanks so much for making this.
Thank you Congressman Bergman! Before you were even elected to Congress you identified this critical infrastructure improvement need! Well on its way - YOU ARE GETTING THINGS DONE!!!
Bergman voted against the Infrastructure Bill.
Absolutely fascinating, from a Wisconsinite who loves the UP and has toured the Soo locks with my family this was a great update. Thanks for putting this together!!!
Wonderful video. I grew up on the St. Marys River watching ships my whole life. My grandfather was a Lock Master in the 1960's but I learned so much from your video. Thank you.
Alexis you are a treasure of a young lady who adds so much enthusiasm & interests to your videos. You must bring joy to your husband & family daily & thanks to them for allowing us all to share your time in the making of this series. This has been so interesting & hopefully as the new locks continue to be built you will be able to do updates. Thanks. 🙏🇨🇦👍
Went to Soo locks today, and were closed for Training against terrorism. But this made things all good.
Toured around UP yesterday and saw most of what you suggested.
SO, since locks were closed, toured downtown in Canada.
People everywhere were really nice.
Can't thank you enough! 😊
Your videos are absolutely amazing. We watch them with my son as part of our efforts to spark his love of science, geology, engineering, etc.
OUTSTANDING! I'm a volunteer for the Corps of Engineers at the Locks and learned so much from both of your videos. Great job!! :)
Big fan of your channel from the 🇨🇦 side. I can hear the work being done on this project at night from my back porch in Sault Ontario. Great information/content/presentation. Thanks for all your hard work.
Thank you so much for this video. I have lived 66 of 68 years around Lake Michigan and 43 of those years in Michigan I love the history of shipping in the lakes and the beautiful natural landscapes around the lakes. Not to forget the lighthouses. The locks are so important and I think hands dow n that this is the absolute best work you have done. I worked as a tv director in a variety of disciplines so please accept my congratulations.
WOW. Alexis I like to visit there at least 3 or 4 times a year to watch ships. I never knew there was all that going on in the workings of the locks. thank you so much for the story.
Alexis, I grew up in SW MI and plan to return one day - your series on the Soo Locks has solidly placed a visit on my personal bucket list. What a wonderful presentation, and such a cool experience - you summed it up perfectly at the end.
So pumped to see you at the Soo! Amazing work as always, I have to go watch your first vid now! On a trip to Mackinac in 2022, we took a day up to Sault St Marie to see friends. It's such a cool town! Good prices. I'd stay there and drive down to see Mackinac and the Island next time. We took a ferry tour of the locks. Amazing. The whole trip felt like a huge opportunity for different You Tube channels. Both to get footage and cover fascinating niche issues like these locks, the huge steel mill on the Canadian side, and the giant boat that's a museum nearby. You would make a great tour guide for content creators coming to Michigan!
Thank you so much! And you're right - there's so much happening in that area! My focus was on the Locks, but there's so much else to see.
Alexis, Thanks for bringing Mechanical Mysteries of Michigan to the Masses. Very entertaining !!
Yea your back
Yes! I’ve been waiting for you to do the locks! One of Michigans marvels.
Most excellent episode!! Grew up in the UP and visited the locks a couple of times a summer. I'm saving this episode. Love it. ❤
Nicely done! A maintained infrastructure keeps all of us doing "better".
Greetings from Germany... Very interesting to learn the details of the locks the various systems and of course the history. Glad to have found this channel.
Thanks for sharing this, and your other explorations, Alexis. Always enjoy and learn from your videos.
When I was much younger on a school trip to some locks on the Mississippi they described how the female engineer who designed the lock had to take into consideration how water flowed out of the lock to avoid downward suction on the barges. They pointed out if the water flowed to fast out of the lock it could actually sink the low riding barges. They also talked about water replacement into the lock as shipping leaves, or water displacement as shipping enters the lock. In both cases they want to manage that from below by valve as opposed to flowing horizontally under the shipping as it moves in and out. Lots of thought and engineering.
This has been one of my favorite videos ive seen in a long time.
Thank you so much!
This was so fun! I love when you go in-depth like you did here. It's always a good day when you post a video, and a greater day when it's about the great lakes. I love places like the locks. Thank you so much for this!
Thank you for this wonderful, in-depth video on the Soo Locks. I'm not an engineer but to see how it all works and is upkept is really neat.
This might be my favorite of all your videos. I hope you get to do a behind the scenes follow up when the construction of the new lock is further along,
Saw that you posted another SSM Locks video and wanted to wait until I was up north to watch it. Well worth the wait and, I have to tell you, I feel a big smile build whenever you post a new video.
Good stuff, Alexis.
Edit: Hearing her gush about an "analogue" saw cut made my day. Exactly. So simple and it doesn't lie.
Such an awesome video with a lot of cool folks who's passion for what they do really shine through! Really neat to see the historic photos and to see the view from the tower. And its always really cool to see the design considerations that go into infrastructure that has to be so robust and lasting and safe.
I live in Detroit and found your video very interesting and I learned things I didn't know anything about. Thank You Alexia
This was a great watch. I work with locks and dams and rivers and have kind of become desensitized, so it’s great to have a different perspective on what’s so cool about them.
OMG I love this video so much. Im based in "Lockport" Illinois that is the first lock in the Chicago Area Waterway System holding back the entirely of the great lakes. I have long been fascinated with the locks and spend my free time exploring the area, staring at 19th century maps to compare how things have changed, and all things associated with the way these locks have changed our lives.
This was excellent! My wife and i did the tour a few years ago. It was very fascinating. This was even better!
Thank you for another video. It's been a few years since I was last up there and I want to go again! Your videos are always great please keep them coming.
Great video, the last time I visited the locks it was in the 90s, I had no idea all the stuff was going on underneath. It's really interesting!
I drove through Alberta yesterday and thought about the video you did there. Was so happy to see this video up this morning. Thanks for posting these wonderful videos!
I don't recall how I came across your channel (hm, actually, I think it might have had something to do with the rabbit hole I followed on rocks that glow under blacklight) but I'm glad I did! I'm really enjoying your videos and realizing Michigan is a place I want to visit at some point!
Thank you for the excellent content!
Hello Alexis! Good to hear from you. Thanks for another well-researched and interesting video about life in the UP.
I always enjoy your videos so much. Fun, informative and about all things that make Michigan my favorite place.
thank you for all you do to educate those of us that never want to stop learning.
Top 5 content creators, Alexis!!! I love your passion!! Grand Rapids has a 22' drop..if left natural... concrete worker since 1986.. and we just figured out Roman concrete...think pantheon
Great timing for this wonderful documentary as I'm heading south to SSM for meetings this coming week and will be now thinking of the projects happening there.
I grew up in Cheboygan and lived right on Lake Huron, and besides seeing them go by the house, we could also listen to all the check ins and much of the other radio chatter on the scanner. It was always kinda neat to listen to a couple ships talking to each other as they were going by. Also it wasn't mentioned but besides the Lockmaster is Soo Control which operates under the Coast Guard. Soo Control regulates how the ships traverse the St Mary's River.
Absolutely fabulous. Thank you for sharing.
I feel like I was there with you! Now I want to see it person! Thanks for sharing your wonderful content!
Soo local here, I wondered what that sound was! Thank you!
I'm an electrical by school and 40 years working at but I have a mechanical bent that makes anything like what you saw but couldn't film just give me the itchy. It's amazing the things I've been able to see in my 40 year career. Great show!
WOOOOOO Michigan!!!!
As a kid, we used to take our little 16' fiberglass boat through the main locks and "shared space" with the freighters. Probably for the best they don't allow that anymore. . .
Cool to see the Cort (#1), the only traditionally built 1000 footer come through on the time laps.
I grew up by the Saginaw Bay and loved seeing the Soo Locks when growing up. Very nice to see the inner workings.
It's a little sad not to see the underground stuff on video, but I also understand the security risks involved with some details being on the internet. Thanks for taking us along, I've seen the locks from the other side of the fence, but never realized how much work was going into the new lock project.
Excellent video! It appears one slight omission is the definition of a “monolith.” A lock wall monolith is simply a large block of concrete that when joined with other monoliths, forms a lock wall. These monoliths are generally on the order of 40’ long; and thus, an example 1600’ long lock wall would be comprised of 40 monoliths. And since a lock has two walls, a total of 80 monoliths. Each monolith is designed separately and thus can vary in size and shape to retain the water in between the walls and keep soil and water at different elevations on the outside. So the saw cut is a means to see if one monolith is moving/possibly failing in relation to its adjacent stable monolith. A lot of saw cuts and instrumentation to monitor 80 monoliths!
Very cool, I live a block away from the Locks :)
water scour from cavitation is no joke. dams that have overflow tunnels with turns in them usually need heavy maitence after use. There are pictures of 25' tunnels with 20* bends in them, and the water has eroded 5-10 FEET of concrete away.
Family vacationed in Marquette last summer. I wanted to get out to the Soo locks, but they didn't want to take the drive after already driving up to The UP. I appreciate this video very much. Thank you for all the work you put into this.
You're going to give Fred Mills and TheB1M a run for their money at this rate!
Below is the Great Lakes major Atlantic Salmon fishery! Great video, can't rail 40,000 tons of ore in the 1000 footers. Caught a big one below the locks in '99.
A great video as usual. It looks like the Hoover Dam in infrastructure terms.
Maybe a video on the Sault Ste Marie Bridge. I could see it's deck had been changed in a interval of time difference in the photos you used of the lock pictures. I've crossed it in 1980 and again in 1988.
What a fascinating video. The most interesting things come from the work of Americans like these engineers and Park Ranger in Sioux Saint Marie. What a service you have done bringing their work to us.
Thank Alexis. I was keeping an eye on your channel for this video while on vacation in the UP a few weeks ago. So glad it came to spectacular fruition. Any hints regarding what you are working on next??
i like the Glenn Miller Tee shirt, we saw them around where we live. Good tour.
Thanks alexis, excellent & awesome video, thanks for sharing !!!
Wow,this is the most interesting video I’ve seen all year. Awesome and thank you😁😁👍👍
This was a great video. Been through the locks a time or two but this was a great inside view.
Awesome. Loved all of the engineering ... myownself coming from the Nuclear Power industry.
And i gotts say ... that lady engineer, who knows her stuff ... and has all those tattoos ... well ... i am smiten. ;)
love you too Alexis ... hope to run into you some day up here in da U.P.
There has been an interstate widening project in WNC, and one time I went through the gap in a mountain while one of those hammers was working. It was making the ENTIRE top of the mountain reverberate!
You want to talk about loud....
Try have two to four ACRES of rock reverb from each hit!
THAT was LOUD!!!!
This video was, “huh cool”.😁 But all joking aside, it’s a fantastic video. 👍
I watch videos of narrowboats in the UK. They are generally 6'10'' wide by 40-60' long. The complete opposite of the big canals.
I love watching Michelle on the Corps of engineers RUclips page...especially the winter maintenance video
I got to see some of this on the 2024 Engineers Day... I even learned where they store the spare replacement gates for the locks... so much more to the locks system than just the locks... like keeping the shipping channel free of obstructions... I think we may have even got to talk with Rachel that day... You had a lot more access than we did thanks for sharing it with us... looking forward to 2025 Engineers Day
Yay! Another fantastic Alexis video. When i saw that you put this one up, i couldn't click on it fast enough. You do such a great job and make the most interesting videos on RUclips. I've commented this before and I'll say it again: You deserve a TV show. Thanks for this great educational content.
Thank you! Your documentaries are great.
Thank you, Alexis, this was a fabulous video!! I really appreciate the time that you and the staff put into this informative episode.
Many yrs ago few my first Visits there all 5 Locks were running and Canadian one was alot larger. Last time I was there on 4th of July they had Fireworks over the Locks...as snow flurries were falling!
This was very interesting. I've been through those locks years ago on a boat so it's cool to see behind the scenes. I got to go inside the Hoover Dam which was also so cool. I love how stuff like this works. It's amazing how essential they are to our society and commerce. Thanks.
This is such a fantastic story!!! The presentation is excellent as well!!! Thank YOU Alexis!!!
I just left there last week. No boats this day. But still very interesting visitor center. I'm here because of watching your videos... You cost me $$...lol
What a great tour, i was there in 2018 , it was raining for two days, so i must return again, thanks Alexis for this up close view
Thank you for sharing your adventures. Love projects like this and all the little things that make the big thing run smooth.
FANTASTIC video! Consider investing in stabilization technology going forward. It was a bit shaky throughout.
I totally agree! Now that I've got my camera situation figured out, some kind of stabilizer is next up on my equipment list.
when you zoomed in on the pump controls, the big whit tent seen on the canadian side is the Roberta Bondar pavilion. if i remember corectly, at time of construction it was the largest tent in the world.
What an excellent and very informative video! Well done! Keep up the good work! We're visiting the UP and probably won't be able to get to the Soo Locks, so videos like this bring back memories from 55 years ago when I last visited Sault Saint Marie with my parents.
What a great video! I was at the locks a couple of months after you. (And I know exactly which day you must have been there, because I know what day the First Lady was there...)
Nice work!! Crazy how long it will take to build the new locks
I revisited the Soo a week ago.
Your always the most awesome Alexis. Thank you for all your efforts on these videos. Im simply in love with your channel. So happy i found you. Carry on young lady...carry on ! 👍
As a lifelong yooper I have never been so informed about the locks. I even grew up with a guy who worked there!
Fascinating video. I want to visit now (and probably will someday). Rachel is great. She's the kind of person who'd be fun to talk to over a beer or two (they are all cool TBH).
Amazing video. Thank you so much for doing something so many of us can barely see from the viewing platform
I told my youngest daughter that you look just like her mom when she was younger. She didn’t fully appreciate it, but I can totally see my wife getting up to your shenanigans. She has an awesome laugh that would have made this viral though.
Very interesting, Thank You.
Its like a much bigger version of the Ballard Locks here in Seattle (the Ballard Locks separate the Shilshole Bay from Lake Union)
Fantastic Alevis. I find your casual conversational style very effective. I think most Americans are unaware of the Soo Locks and how critically important they are. And there you are helping us learn about about them. Also this little video is just packed full with info. A more edited and polished video would have lost a whole lot of info. Fantastic!
Great video as usual - thank you!