Coast Guard vessels towed the Dutch cargo ship on Saturday morning Heemskerkgracht which ran aground Thursday near Kahnawake in the St. Lawrence Seaway.
Trailers turned and pulled the boat toward the Côte-Sainte-Catherine wharf in Montérégie, where it will be inspected. The operation began around 8:30 a.m. and ended 20 minutes later.
Traffic has been able to resume on the seaway after two days of blockage. About twenty ships were waiting due to the grounding, according to Jean Aubry-Morin, spokesperson for the Seaway. “We expect the system to be free of fluidity in the next three days,” he said.
The towing comes at a time when a rail labor dispute is paralyzing the economy. “There are a lot of exports of food, grain and other priority cargo that have to go on the seaway,” explained Jean Aubry-Morin. “We’re trying to speed up the passage of ships so that the economy is affected as little as possible.”
The annual economic impact associated with the maritime corridor to the seaway is $66 billion, for 296 days of navigation per year, says the spokesperson, who does not hide his concern despite the success of the towing. “Two days lost represents hundreds of millions of dollars in economic impact,” he emphasizes.
Repairs of the Heemskerkgracht should take 48 hours, after which the ship will be able to resume its course, according to Jean Aubry-Morin.