Construction
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Alaska’s Maritime Port(folio)
Renovations and upgrades around the state spell good news for industry
By Amy Newman
W

hether delivering groceries to Cape Fox or equipment to the North Slope, providing the infrastructure needed to deploy equipment to Alaska’s military bases, or supporting the millions of tourists who arrive via cruise, Alaska’s economy relies on the maritime industry.

And with 90 percent of Alaska’s freight entering the state by marine vessel, ship, or barge, maintaining the state’s maritime infrastructure is essential.

To keep things running efficiently and safely, the ports and harbors that serve the industry undergo a steady stream of renovations, modifications, and expansions to keep pace with evolving user needs and facilities that degrade due to the forces of time and the elements.

Juneau Docks & Harbors
Six launch ramp facilities, four small boat harbors, and two cruise ship floating docks serve an array of users in Alaska’s capital city.

“We support large national corporations, we support the commercial fishing industry, we support recreational boating, we support the pedestrian that just wants to walk along the sea walk,” says Port Director Carl Uchytil. “The need is really access to the water.”

“We’re going to do some bridge decking repairs to the causeway and ramps to the floating dock and rebuild the fittings on each side of that. This should extend the life of the infrastructure up to twenty-five years. The causeway will go first in the spring and the transfer ramp will go in the fall.”
Jeremy Talbott, Ports and Harbor Director, City of Valdez
Recent projects, many of which are phases of long-term plans, seek to meet the needs of those users.

In October 2019, City and Borough of Juneau’s Docks and Harbors began the $8.4 million Statter Harbor Improvements Project. Expected to be completed in May 2021, the project will modernize the popular Auke Bay harbor, which has a yearlong waitlist of eighty-five vessels, by adding a “for-hire float” and new gangway to provide more access for recreational boaters, fishing, and whale watching vessels. Pacific Pile & Marine dredged the basin, which allowed Trucano Construction to install roughly 900 feet of float destined for use by charter vessel operations.

“Looking at that project, we see the value of creating something for the local tour companies that are involved in the industry but also building that capacity that adds more float area for the locals to find moorage,” Uchytil says.

Downtown, Trucano Construction also completed a $12.5 million project at the Archipelago Lot, which stretches along the waterfront from Marine Park to Taku Dock. Part of the city’s 2004 long-range Waterfront Development Plan, the project decked over portions of the Archipelago Lot and built a staging area for the small airporter-sized buses that take tourists around town, Uchytil says.

“We know there’s a need to have more room to create a nicer atmosphere along the waterfront, so we’re very pleased with how that turned out,” Uchytil says. Future plans at the Archipelago Lot include adding a covered staging area for tourists and more restrooms.

Zinc anode replacements scheduled for Statter and Harris Harbors this summer will extend the life of the harbors’ pilings by one-third, he adds.

Port of Alaska
The Port of Alaska has several waterside and shoreside projects underway.

“The biggest, brightest, boldest, most sexy one is the Port of Alaska Modernization Program,” says Jim Jager, director of business continuity and external affairs. “[It’s] basically a dock replacement program that is replacing aging infrastructure.”

Phase I is construction of the Petroleum and Cement Terminal to replace the Petroleum Oil Lubricants Terminal 1, which has served as the Port of Alaska’s primary petroleum terminal and Alaska’s only bulk cement-handling marine terminal since 1965. Deterioration due to age and earthquake damage, combined with technological advancements that changed the way cargo is offloaded, means the current dock has reached the end of both its usable and economic life.

Lack of space for every sized vessel at the Homer Harbor led to prioritizing construction of a second harbor dedicated to serving larger vessels that use the harbor’s transit moorings.

Homer Port and Harbor

aerial view of cramped and packed vessels in Port of Alaska
Lack of space for every sized vessel at the Homer Harbor led to prioritizing construction of a second harbor dedicated to serving larger vessels that use the harbor’s transit moorings.

Homer Port and Harbor

“We’ve extended the life of that dock as long as we can,” Jager says. “They’ve reached their economic capacity because the cargo capacity has changed. In 1961 containerized cargo wasn’t a thing, and as the technology has evolved, it becomes less and less efficient to use that old facility to service the new technology.”

The Petroleum and Cement Terminal will have the necessary technology to efficiently offload containerized cargo, which means that functionally, the old and new docks will likely be similarly sized, Jager says. But because the upgrades will significantly decrease offload times, the new dock will have an effectively greater capacity.

“With the new dock, we expect that that cement offload time is going to be cut in half, partially because it’s going to be located closer to the cement facility and partially because it’s going to be using the new technology,” Jager says.

“Our facility is beyond capacity and we’re turning vessels away. I have customers mooring large vessels in Washington and Oregon because they can’t moor them in Alaska, and it costs them to run back and forth. As a state, we really need to focus on our core industries, and the maritime industry is definitely one of our core industries. We should be focusing on trying to serve that fleet in the future and building the infrastructure that supports and promotes growth in our commercial fleet will grow Alaska’s economy.”
Bryan Hawkins, Harbormaster, City of Homer
Pacific Pile & Marine completed construction of the base structure of the access trestle and platform last November and is scheduled this month to resume work on the project, estimated to have an all-in cost of $205 million to $210 million, Jager says. The project is set for completion in November or December of this year.

Other waterside projects include the continuation of a pile jacketing program that reinforces degraded piles with steel jackets and replacing damaged portions of some fender piles, says Port Modernization Program Director Sharen Walsh. Each project is roughly $1.5 million, although the fender repair project is dependent upon receipt of an US Army Corps of Engineers permit, she adds.

Shoreside, the Port of Alaska will continue draining repairs leftover from the 2018 earthquake and some power upgrades, Jager says. A project to stabilize the Port of Alaska’s north end could begin as early as 2022, pending the outcome of litigation between the Municipality of Anchorage and the US Department of Transportation Maritime Administration, he adds.

Port of Nome
A regional shipping hub, the Port of Nome serves fuel and cargo vessels, adventure cruise ships, foreign and domestic government vessels, and research vessels, says Port Director Joy Baker. It also exports a large amount of gravel, rock, and sand every year.

“We serve nearly every maritime industry that traverses the Bering Strait because there’s nowhere else to go,” Baker says. “We’re kind of like a one-stop-shop for everybody,” with vessels utilizing the port for crew changes, to resupply, and for emergency medical services.

Sim Brubaker | Port of Alaska
In December, Congress approved the Arctic Deep Draft Port project, which has been in development for more than a decade, Baker says. The expansion project will allow deep-draft vessels to dock, which eliminates the risk to lightered vessels as well as the environmental risk associated with ship-to-ship fuel transfers.

“We are pushing the breakwater out about 3,500-feet from the end of the existing causeway, so we can get to deeper water and dredge a 40-foot basin to accommodate the larger ships,” Baker says.

With the feasibility study approved, the project has advanced to the engineering phase and is currently in negotiations with the federal government over the design agreement. Once completed, the project is expected to go out to bid sometime between Fall 2022 to Spring 2023, Baker says.

Other projects currently in the design and funding phases include completion of an 18-acre pad, roughly $2 million to $3 million; development of a ship waste reception facility, estimated at $5 million to $6 million; and an estimated $14 million to $15 million project to build small vessel moorage floats in the Snake River to address overcrowding in the Small Boat Harbor, Baker says.

This summer, the Port will replace anodes at three aging docks to protect the steel’s integrity and will put out an RFP to replace the port’s concrete launch ramp, a project that was pushed back a year due to COVID-19, according to Baker.

“It wasn’t intended to service heavy vessels, and we’ve got so many vessels trans-shipping out of Nome that we didn’t envision because the cargo and gravel built up so quickly,” Baker says. “So the ramp has taken some abuse and it’s time to replace it.”

Seward Passenger Dock
Constructed in 1966, the Seward Passenger Dock stores barges in the winter and serves the cruise ship industry in the summer with a second, smaller dock dedicated to freight, explains Jim Kubitz, vice president of real estate and facilities for the Alaska Railroad Corporation (ARRC), which owns the dock.
Juneau Docks & Harbors have installed two new main walk floats and a new head walk float that connects the existing float system to a second gangway as part of its ongoing Statter Harbor improvements

Juneau Docks & Harbors

view of a crane at Juneau Docks & Harbors
Juneau Docks & Harbors have installed two new main walk floats and a new head walk float that connects the existing float system to a second gangway as part of its ongoing Statter Harbor improvements

Juneau Docks & Harbors

ARRC has replaced and reinforced the dock’s steel pilings through the years to slow its deterioration, but those fixes are “band-aids… that can’t last forever,” Kubitz says. Currently ARRC has an RFP out for construction of a new dock, which would include enlarging the existing cruise ship passenger terminal to accommodate the number of tourists who arrive on larger cruise ships.

“We’re in the process of negotiating with a developer to replace that dock, which would be a couple of years project,” he says. “The idea is to have someone remove the dock without interruption to service and build a new dock and a new building on the shore that processes passengers, because we get a lot of cruise ships there.”

The goal is to have the project awarded this spring, and construction completed and ready for the 2024 season, Kubitz says. He anticipates that planning for the project will cost $65 million to $70 million.

ARRC also plans to extend and widen its existing freight dock to accommodate heavy freight and rail and to serve as a backup to the Port of Alaska, Kubitz says. The railroad decided to push the project back until 2022. It will be funded by a Build America grant awarded in 2020.

“With the passenger dock going to start this fall, we kind of have to pace ourselves,” he explains. “Two dock projects are a pretty big deal in the same area.”

Sim Brubaker | Port of Alaska
Valdez Ports and Harbor
The City of Valdez is preparing a scope design to support a $12 million reconstruction of the Valdez Harbor H-K floats, says Ports and Harbor Director Jeremy Talbott. Scheduled to go out to bid in late spring, the project will replace the harbor’s H-K floats, add full electric and fire protection systems for 511 slips, replace the tour dock with an Americans with Disabilities Act compliant gangway/ramp, and expand the boat launches to include three full lanes with floats.
This summer, a $2 million project will extend the useful life of the container dock; its primary users are Samson, Alaska Marine Lines, oil and gas industry/spill response support, and the US Military.

“We’re going to do some bridge decking repairs to the causeway and ramps to the floating dock and rebuild the fittings on each side of that,” Talbott says. “This should extend the life of the infrastructure up to twenty-five years. The causeway will go first in the spring and the transfer ramp will go in the fall.”

City of Homer Port and Harbor
As a combined port and harbor, the City of Homer serves a diverse fleet.

“We have a very diverse customer user group, ranging from truly recreational all the way to heavy industrial vessels,” says Harbormaster Bryan Hawkins. The port and harbor serves commercial freight vessels, is a homeport for the MV Tustumena, the Coast Guard Cutters Hickory and Naushon, and draws recreational boaters and commercial fishing vessels from far beyond Homer.

Large national corporations, the commercial fishing industry, recreational users, and pedestrians all need access to the water in Juneau, meaning waterfront projects are a priority for the community.

Juneau Docks & Harbors

aerial view of Juneau port

Large national corporations, the commercial fishing industry, recreational users, and pedestrians all need access to the water in Juneau, meaning waterfront projects are a priority for the community.

Juneau Docks & Harbors

There are several projects on Homer’s capital improvement list in various stages of development, Hawkins says, but the City Council has prioritized a port expansion project to better accommodate the larger fleet of ships the port serves.

“The Port Expansion Project would build another harbor just to the north of the existing basin that would be dedicated to the larger vessels,” Hawkins says. “It would move the large vessel fleet here in our small boat harbor to this new port.”

The project must first undergo a three-year, $3 million preliminary investigation by the US Army Corps of Engineers to justify the need for federal funding, Hawkins explains. But he says the expansion will ultimately improve both Homer’s and the state’s ability to serve the maritime industry.

“Our facility is beyond capacity and we’re turning vessels away,” Hawkins says. “I have customers mooring large vessels in Washington and Oregon because they can’t moor them in Alaska, and it costs them to run back and forth. As a state, we really need to focus on our core industries, and the maritime industry is definitely one of our core industries. We should be focusing on trying to serve that fleet in the future and building the infrastructure that supports and promotes growth in our commercial fleet will grow Alaska’s economy.”