STURGEON BAY, Wis. – Ship workers are preparing a freighter with strong Rogers City ties for a repowering project.

At Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding in Sturgeon Bay, Wis., workers are removing hazardous materials from the John G. Munson to prepare for replacing its massive steam turbines with a diesel engine, Keylakes Vice President of Engineering Mitch Koslow said. Along with a new drivetrain and propeller, they’ll also install four generators and two auxiliary boilers to provide electricity and steam needed to keep the boat powered and heated.

While Koslow declined to give an estimated cost for the project, he said the reasons behind it are two-fold.

“A diesel engine is much more fuel-efficient than a steam turbine is, and secondly, it’s environmental reasons,” he said. “They’re much cleaner-burning. We’re being somewhat driven regulations-wise toward more fuel efficiency and being more environmentally sensitive.”

Once back in service, the Munson’s expected to burn 1 million fewer gallons of fuel overall, a 37 percent reduction, Koslow said. The Munson should emit 11,000 fewer tons of carbon dioxide and 164 fewer tons of sulfur dioxide per year as well.

The Munson also is an ideal candidate for a repowering project because out of the nine self-unloading bulk carriers Keylakes manages, the Munson is the largest of the smaller vessels, Koslow said. It carries nearly 26,000 tons of cargo and its self-unloading system uses a forward boom, meaning its pivot point is closest to the pilot house as opposed to the boat’s aft end.

Of the 768-foot Munson’s fleetmates, the 1,004-foot Edgar B. Speer is the largest and holds the most cargo, while the Great Republic is the shortest at 634 feet and holds the fleet’s second-smallest volume of cargo. That’s according to information from Canadian National, which owns the Great Lakes fleet through a U.S. subsidiary.

Design work for the repowering began in February 2015, Koslow said. The plan is to have the Munson in dry dock by mid-March, when ship builders will install its new engine, gears, controllable-pitch propeller and other drivetrain components over the next month.

Ship workers will upgrade the Munson’s engine controls, electrical distribution and other auxiliary systems over the rest of 2016, Koslow said. The goal is to have the Munson ready for sea trials by the start of the 2018 shipping season.

“We expect most of the work to be completed by year’s end, and then next winter we’ll use that time for our start-up on the commissioning of new systems and our testing,” he said.

Structurally, the Munson is sound, and for the last five years its owners have invested into maintaining and investing in the steel that supports its cargo, Koslow said. That work will continue on the Munson and its fleetmates into the future, giving it a new lease on life.

The freighter was completed in 1952 for Bradley Transportation and is named after John Gephart Munson, according to George Wharton’s Boatnerd.com vessel narrative. Munson was a former president of Michigan Limestone and Chemical Company in Rogers City and Bradley Transportation, before serving as a U.S. Steel vice president from 1939-51.

When Canadian National’s subsidiary bought the Munson and seven of its fleetmates in 2004, it was the last member of the Great Lakes Fleet, formerly owned by U.S. Steel, that had sailed for Bradley Transportation, according to historian Gerald Micketti. It’s the last member of the Bradley fleet still sailing under its original name; the George A. Sloan is now the Canadian-flagged Mississagi and part of Lower Lakes Towing’s fleet.

As the freighter’s twin steam turbines, Foster-Wheeler boilers and 600-kilowatt General Electric steam generators aged, they became more obsolete, Koslow said.

“The time comes to when you can’t support them any longer,” he said. “That comes into some of these decisions, when maintenance and supportability become so expensive that you have to take into account for safe and reliable and efficient operations.”

Jordan Travis can be reached via email at jtravis@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5688. Follow Jordan on Twitter @jt_alpenanews. Read his blog, A Snowball’s Chance, at www.thealpenanews.com.