Complex sentence: This was a much larger canal with locks capable of carrying seagoing ships, not just small barges, allowing shipping on the upper Great Lakes to bypass Lake St. Clare, Lake Erie and the Welland Canal, cutting days off the transit to the sea.
Split into simpler sentences: This was a much larger ship canal with locks capable of carrying seagoing ships, not just small barges. It would allow shipping on the upper Great Lakes to bypass Lake St. Clare, Lake Erie and the Welland Canal, cutting days off the transit to the sea.