Alaska develops ports central to local economies.

• Author: Swagel, Will
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: Transportation - Cover story

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Alaska has more miles of seacoast--6,640--than any other state in the United States. The number two state is Florida at 1,350 miles of seacoast. If you count in tidelands, Alaskans have direct access to the ocean from about 34,000 miles of coast. A lot of that coast is rocky and forbidding and some of it is frozen for a large part of the year.

That said, it is no wonder that Alaskan towns have clustered in naturally-protected places on the seacoast--or in inland places with river access to the ocean. Most of the freight into Alaska comes by ship and much of Alaska's production of natural resources flows out that way. For Alaska Natives living along the coast, the sea is their main source of traditional foods. Rescue boats can venture into weather that keeps airplanes grounded. Richard Kochuten, the harbormaster of Sand Point, says the harbor in his Alaska Peninsula fishing town is "the goose that lays the golden egg."

Capital Ports

After retiring from the U.S. Coast Guard in Juneau, Carl Uchytil took the job as port director of the Capital City's ports. The size of Juneau's harbor system is impressive: four massive cruise ship docks downtown, a small boat harbor in Douglas, two boat harbors along Egan Drive, and a small boat harbor in Auke Bay, near where most of Juneau's population now lives.

"There's $120 million in projects going through the harbor and dock system," says Uchytil.

Two of Juneau's cruise ship docks are city-owned and those are scheduled for replacement. Uchytil says plans are to replace the present wharf-style arrangement with floating docks. Construction on the first floating dock is to begin in October 2014, to be completed by May of 2015. The second new dock will be built starting in October 2015, to be completed the following May.

The timing is to avoid further complicating the Juneau waterfront in summer when hundreds of thousands of visitors arrive by ship and flood the downtown waterfront. "You have to keep an eye on the needs of the harbor patrons and the tourism industry and build during an Alaskan winter," Uchytil says.

At Auke Bay, city officials held a ribbon-cutting ceremony May 15 on the $8.5 million dollar replacement of a portion of Don Statter Harbor. Pacific Pile & Marine, LP performed the work, which included removing and replacing wooden floats with concrete floats, replacing portions of the gangway, and replacing a portion of the headwalk. There were repairs to two floats and the breakwater where large rubber fenders and long through-rods will be replaced to extend the harbor's functional life.

Also at Starter Harbor, plans are to upgrade the boat launch and do extensive work on the associated uplands. With Juneau's population now largely in the Mendenhall Valley, the Statter Harbor boat launch is the most heavily used of the city's six launches. To deal with the congestion that can occur on a sunny Saturday morning, the city plans to extend the parking lot and to put in "make ready" and "tie down" areas for boat owners to do their pre- and post-launch chores and keep the launching moving more smoothly. Port directors have to begin considering the launch ramps more these days, since there is a trend toward people trailering their boats instead of renting a slip.

"There are 1,300 boat slips in the four municipal harbors," Uchytil says. "But the city sells 2,000 trailer permits (per year)." In the works is a replacement of Aurora Harbor on the waterfront across from Juneau-Douglas High School. In October 2012, Juneau voters approved a $7 million bond issue and the city will match a $2 million grant from the state Municipal Harbor Grant Fund, for a total of $11 million, which will take care of half the needed upgrades.

"It will be a total of $22 million to replace the entire harbor, which is well past its useful life," Uchytil says. "We are going to bid (the first half) in early January 2014, award it in February, with the construction to be...