Tugboats, icebreaker to be deployed to break up ice jams along Mohawk | The Daily Gazette SECTIONS ERICA MILLER/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Tugboats Margot, front, and Benjamin Elliot, are docked at Lock 7 on the Mohawk River in Niskayuna on Monday. Shares0 SCHENECTADY — An icebreaker and tugboats will be deployed this winter along the Mohawk River and Erie Canal as part of a pilot project to break up ice jams that have long plagued the waterways. The effort is part of the state’s “Reimagine the Canals” initiative, the effort rolled out earlier this year to improve resiliency along the flood-prone corridors. Union College Professor Dr. John Garver, who has long studied ice jams and flooding, called the plans an “important first step.”