A mechanical issue at Port Colborne’s Lock 8 brought shipping traffic to a halt on the Welland Canal Tuesday, stranding six vessels on the 43-kilometre-long waterway for six hours. Nicole Giroux-Laplante, the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp.
’s manager of communications and media relations, said traffic was suspended at 3:30 p.m. “Our team is currently assessing the situation and working to resolve it.
There are no safety concerns,” she said in an email to The Tribune. In a followup email, Giroux-Laplante said the mechanical issue — she did not say what it was — was resolved and seaway traffic resumed at 9:30 p.m.
At the time the seaway shut down the canal, Hapag-Lloyd Cruises’ Hanseatic Inspiration , built in 2019 and designed for luxury expedition travel, was in Lock 8. According to the Cruise Mapper website , the 138-metre long vessel, which holds 199 to 230 passengers and 170 crew, is on a 13-day cruise from Toronto to Milwaukee WI. On the Marine Traffic website , the cruise ship’s Automatic Identification System (AIS) showed its destination as Windsor.
Above Lock 8, on the Lake Erie side of the canal, the Polsteam vessel Miedwie, was listed as headed to Gibraltar. Behind the Hanseatic Inspiration, were the Algoma Discovery, the tug-barge combination Wilf Seymour-Alouette Spirit, in Port Colborne. Other vessels delayed by the issue at Lock 8 included tug-barge combination Everlast-Norman McLeod, and the tanker Algotitan in the Thorold area.
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