Members of a Haines Borough advisory committee May 20 envisioned expanding the Boat Harbor southward, adding moorage for as many as 50 new slips, moving Lookout Park closer to Portage Cove, and extending parking south of the park’s current location.
The brainstorming session came at a meeting between the committee and PND Engineers of Juneau, which holds a $70,000 contract to conceptualize the next phase of improvements to the existing basin. Their report – which will include a study of wave patterns there – should be complete by the end of summer.
The funding picture for the next round of work is mixed. The Alaska Legislature’s recent elimination of regional impact funds from the cruise ship head tax killed one source of money borough officials were eyeing, as an expanded harbor could also moor summer shuttle ferries.
However, borough facilities director Brad Maynard said Army Corps of Engineers officials and Alaska Congressional delegation members were optimistic about Haines securing start-up funds during recent meetings in Washinton, D.C.
“We have a very good chance at a new start at harbor expansion and we’re incorporating (improvements to the existing basin) into the new start,” Maynard told the harbor advisory committee.
Committee members generally supported dredging near-shore areas and extending and narrowing the southern entrance of the harbor to significantly increase room and reduce wave action inside the basin. Moving the fuel float southward to make room for extending main floats also was generally supported.
Borough manager Mark Earnest said he hoped additional work this summer might include digging near-shore test pits, to determine if digging out the harbor could be done by shore-based excavation instead of more expensive methods. Permits for the work can be secured in a few weeks and an excavator could do the work, he said.
A remaining question – and one not funded by in the current study – is the firmness of the sea floor near the harbor entrance, where the borough is hoping to extend wave protection.
Soft clay on the floor discovered by the Corps of Engineers in 2004 more than doubled the projected cost of expanding the harbor northward. One core sample in 2004 found similar soil near the end of the south-reaching jetty at the harbor entrance, but two other samples taken at the same time a little closer to shore showed firmer ground.
The soft sample was taken at a shallow depth, and the sea floor in the area of the harbor entrance appears to get firmer with water depth, said Dick Somerville, vice-president of PND.
Knowing with certainty the hardness of the surface is critical in determining what kind of wave barrier must be built, and at what cost. A rubble pile jetty similar to the existing one is cheapest to build, but doesn’t work if supporting soils are soft.
In that scenario, an alternative is a pile-supported steel structure, similar to one recently built at the mouth of the Skagway harbor. The steel structure is less expensive than a wick-drain foundation for a rubble-mound jetty, the alternative that drove up cost estimates on the planned northern harbor expansion.
A steel structure could last 50 years or longer if maintained properly, a PND engineer told the advisory committee.
Somerville said PND is reviewing sea-floor samples taken by the Corps of Engineers in 2004, and some advisory committee members voiced support for another round of sea floor testing. Gathering off-shore samples is expensive but cheaper than changing design midway through construction, Somerville said.
Committee member Jim Studley said he wants to move ahead with it. “I think we need to get ahead of the game and get borings done, so we can take that (information) to the Corps (of Engineers)”.
The borough knows there is hard material close to shore. If this summer’s shore-side test pits find material too hard to remove with an excavator, that also could add costs to the project or scuttle some elements discussed by the committee last week.
Other ideas at the meeting included dredging that would bring the ice machine to the water’s edge, and a combination rubble mound jetty and drive-down float that would serve as a wave barrier extending from shore on harbor’s south end. The harbor’s fuel float has served as a wave barrier of sorts, but has taken a beating in that role, Somerville said.
Drive-down floats can be accessed by autos and are popular at harbors in Juneau and Sitka.
Moving parking south of the current location of Lookout Park may be inevitable. A new boat ramp planned for the south side of the harbor requires considerable parking spaces and a parking area created with concrete traffic barriers near the bar and restaurant there may be eliminated by the state as it rebuilds Front Street.
PND will return in a few weeks with several alternatives based comments at last week’s meeting. The company’s final document will serve as starting point for future discussions with the Corps of Engineers. Diagrams of some alternatives are up in the borough assembly chambers.