The Carbide Dock had seen better days.

The port and industrial site on the St. Mary’s River had been built in the late 19th century. Ownership was transferred from Union Carbide to the City of Sault Ste. Marie in 1962. “The dock was in very bad, ill repair because the last time that they had done anything was in the 1920s, 1930s,” says City Engineer David Boyle. “So, it was falling into the river.”

By 2016, things had gotten bad enough that the U.S. Coast Guard condemned the dock. “One of the things that we were probably criticized for most was lack of access to our great waterfront,” says Mayor Don Gerrie. “They were mad about the sinkholes, obviously.”

Redeveloping the multifunctional site, which includes a deep-water port, a freshwater education and research center, and a waterfront park, was a $39 million lift that took years, with funding from and coordination between federal, state, and local agencies.

“It’s probably the largest project that the City of Sault Ste. Marie has had,” says Gerrie. “It had the most involvement and the most help. And we can’t even articulate how pleased and happy we are.” Nearly a decade in the making, the revitalized Carbide Dock is the City of Sault Ste. Marie’s entry for the 2026 Community Excellence Award.

The City secured a federal TIGER grant of $21 million through the U.S. Department of Transportation in 2017, launching the project into its planning phase. “By 2020, most of the design work was done for it,” says Boyle. “We bid it out in 2020. Of course, that was Covid. It came in extremely over budget—double what we had money for. We made a lot of adjustments and cut some things back, and then we went and rebid it again. We were still over budget, but a tolerable range to get going.”

SmithGroup, an Ann Arbor–based firm, led the way on design. As the project proceeded, the Michigan Department of Transportation contributed funds for things including demolition, while the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) helped pay for engineering work. “Senator [John] Damoose got us about $5 million,” says Gerrie. Boyle rattles off even more sources: “The Department of Wildlife gave us money for all our trees and shrubs. An EGLE grant for our shore power through the Volkswagen Trust Fund—that helped us put all the shore power for the boats and charging stations that we have down there right now.”

He continues: “We had brownfield money. There were huge buildings in there, but they left all the foundations, so that helped us dig a lot of those out and get rid of them.” Engineers extended the dock face slightly outward and installed steel sheet piles driven roughly 65 feet to bedrock.

To spruce up Alford Park, the City received funds from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, including a Michigan Spark Grant. Alford Park now offers residents and visitors lighted walkways, an inland pond, dock space, and fishing access along the waterfront. “It’s a place for people to go,” says Gerrie. “I noticed last weekend when we had prom here, there were a bunch of families with their daughters and sons taking pictures on the waterfront, in our new park area.”

The development of Alford Park included collaboration with the Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians. “They have fishing rights,” says Boyle. “And they have nowhere available on the waterfront to do that. So, we partnered with them.”

Nowadays, the Carbide Dock is what Gerrie describes as, “A good meld of commercial, industrial, residential park area—an educational component, too.” The Carbide Dock is also home to the Center for Freshwater Research and Education, operated by Lake Superior State University. The Center works with the U.S. Coast Guard on freshwater spill research and Great Lakes environmental studies. Wetland drainage areas built into the park are used for research projects.

The commercial port handles bulk shipments, including salt deliveries used throughout the eastern Upper Peninsula during winter. “As we grow and as we get bigger, there is a pad there where we can put a crane so we could offload package ships, big metal containers, and other products, too,” says Gerrie.

“It brings together a lot of different elements for one project,” he says. “It’s multi-dimensional.”

Tourism has been positively affected, too. Sault Ste. Marie expects 65 cruise ship visits during the 2026 season, up from 56 the previous year. During the ribbon cutting ceremony in June 2025, one of the largest Viking cruise ships operating on the Great Lakes was docked behind the stage. “A nice, rainy U.P. day,” laughs Gerrie.

Gerrie considers the Carbide Dock project to be a rousing success. “Everyone has been very positive about it, very energized,” he says. “We have a city of 75,000 in Canada across [the border] from us. We took them to the site, and they raved about it. They said that we have the best waterfront around.”

“And just—you know—it’s been great to see people pull in and park, go down, and watch the ships go by.”

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Emily Pinsuwan

Emily is the League’s full-time Content Writer, composing emails, articles, blog posts, and press releases. If you need words, she has many. Prior to becoming a word person, she was a restaurant person, handling catering, event management, and marketing; prior still, she was a teaching person, at a private boarding school in Massachusetts. Having earned a master’s degree in Classics from the University of Georgia, Emily is confident that she is the only League employee fluent in Latin. She also enjoys cooking, stand-up comedy, and is an avid gamer, having achieved level 40 on her Steam profile.