Infrastructure for Alaska's Northern Latitude.

• Author: White, Rindi
• Position: ARCTIC IDEAS

Between offshore oil drilling, studies of Arctic sea ice, and use of new northern shipping lanes, Arctic Alaska is a hopping place these days. Like any region seeing a spike in traffic, needs arise related to the influx of users. What are the needs and how are they being addressed?

Expanding Infrastructure to Meet Current and Future Needs

While AIDEA (Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority) stands ready to assist in a range of ways, the US Army Corps of Engineers is working on helping one key piece of Arctic infrastructure be built: a deep draft Arctic port.

The Corps' Alaska District held a conference in 2008, attended by more than 125 representatives from local, state, and federal government offices; private transportation businesses; and tribal entities to discuss the future of Alaska's ports and harbors. In 2010, the Corps held a second conference to update stakeholders on the progress made enhancing marine infrastructure in the state. One of the needs identified at that conference was for deep-draft capability. In 2013, the Corps released the Alaska Deep-Draft Arctic Port System study that evaluated fourteen sites along western and northern Alaska shores.

"We had to choose one to really get started on, so we established some criteria for looking at each of those," says Lorraine Cordova, US Army Corps of Engineers-Alaska District economics team leader and project manager for the deep-draft Arctic port study. "The Nome and Port Clarence sites were considered for initial investigation. Nome really bubbled up to the top ... because they have the upland support."

Cordova is referring to existing infrastructure, from grocery stores to hotels. Port Clarence, a former LORAN, or long-range navigation station, lacks upland support. The Corps says there would be many other benefits to the region, the state, and to Nome.

"Enhancing port infrastructure--including deep-draft port facilities currently unavailable north of Unalaska/Dutch Harbor--would meet the state's goal of encouraging economic development in remote areas. It would provide local and regional economic development opportunities (resource extraction, tourism, research); decrease Arctic region operating costs; provide protected dockage to support offshore oil and gas endeavors, fishing fleet, and resource extraction vessels; and provide vessel repair and maintenance support," states the Alaska Deep-Draft Arctic Port System study released in February.

The deeper port would allow Nome to better accommodate the vessels currently using the area, Cordova says, and could significantly expand its role as a staging area for drilling in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas.

"This will allow the fuel tanker to come in to Nome more fully loaded and will allow the offshore resupply vessels to come into Nome," she says.

The Corps is working to address the comments gathered during its draft review of the proposed development of a deep-draft Arctic port in Nome, Cordova says. A final review is needed, and then the development...