Around the Port

Bringing in the sheave
The Duluth Aerial Lift Bridge is once again open both for car and vessel traffic.

Picture by Ken Newhams, Duluth Shipping News

The City of Duluth gave its nearly 100-year-old icon a much needed overhaul over the winter at a cost of $5.1 million. The bridge hadn’t had such major repairs since it was transformed in 1929 from an aerial ferry to its present lift configuration.

During repairs, the Duluth entry closed to ship traffic on Dec. 15 so that all of the bridge’s lifting apparatus could be removed, replaced and refurbished. Late-season traffic used Superior’s natural entry until the close of navigation, on Jan. 15.

The bridge reopened in time for the Port’s first oceangoing vessel arrival, on April 3.

Spanning the Duluth Ship Canal as a link to Minnesota Point and its 400-plus residents, the bridge raises and lowers 40 times a day to accommodate vessel traffic.

Above: The men and women who put the “lift” back in the Aerial Lift Bridge — workers from the City of Duluth Public Works and Utilities; Hardesty & Hanover, New York City; Lunda Construction, Black River Falls, Wis.; and LHB Engineers and Architects, Duluth.
Below: a 42,000-pound sheave is carefully positioned during the renovation project.

Breakout is a family affair
U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone’s Northern Minnesota Office Director, Lisa Radosevich-Pattni, and her sister, Stacy Radosevich, were among more than 70 Port industry officials who gathered on March 16 on board the Cutter Sundew for a “Spring Breakout 2000.”

The cutter was preparing for that day’s departure of the Paul R. Tregurtha, the season’s first outbound vessel. The sisters’ father, Tony Radosevich, is a former chief clerk of the Public Marine Terminal.

Duluth-Superior leads ports in tonnage

Calendar wins
The Duluth Seaway Port Authority’s wall calendar has earned recognition in the annual World Calendar Awards Program for the ninth year in a row. One of more than 500 entries, the Port Authority’s calendar won a silver award in the Best Scenic category by the Calendar Marketing Association, Libertyville, Ill.

Mellin Promotional of Duluth designed and produced the calendar, which featured local photographer Lynnette Steen’s picture of the German cruise vessel Columbus.

The Port Authority annualy circulates approximately 8,000 wall calendars to customers and interested parties.

Museum Association sponsors cruise raffle
Anyone with a pocketful of disposable dollars can tour the Great Lakes these days on a cruise liner. But only a most fortunate few this summer will enjoy the Owner’s Quarters and dine at the captain’s table of a thousand-foot ore boat while traversing the Great Lakes.

This “Cruise of a Lifetime,” made available through the generosity of the USS Great Lakes Fleet in Duluth, is the prize in a raffle being sponsored by the Lake Superior Marine Museum Association as a fundraiser for the Corps of Engineers Lake Superior Maritime Visitor Center.

Three first-prize winners and their guests (one each) will win a trip for two and sail from Duluth or Two Harbors this summer across Lake Superior through the Soo Locks, St. Mary’s River and lower lakes ports.

Entry fee for the raffle is $10. The drawing will be at noon on June 6 in the Visitor Center.

For information: (218) 727-2497 or www.duluthshippingnews.com.

Or send $10 with name, address and phone number to:
Raffle / Lake Superior Marine Museum Association/ PO Box 177 / Duluth 55801