Haines Borough harbor committee members say they aren’t abandoning the dream of expanding north of the latitude of Main Street.

But they may be willing to defer that dream in exchange for major improvements to the existing basin. They could include a doubling of existing moorage and addition of a drive-down work float.

Last week, PND Engineers of Juneau brought drawings of such improvements, including ones that would be accomplished by removing the fuel float, doing extensive, near-shore dredging and building a 450-foot wave barrier to protect the harbor entrance.

Committee member Jim Studley called the options “an outrageously great compromise” to uncertain progress pushing the harbor north.

“I’m inclined to go in this direction. We’ve got to keep expanding this small boat harbor,” Studley said.

The most elaborate design would add 73 slips and 940 feet of transient, side-tie moorage by doubling the length of the harbor’s four main floats and building a 500-foot sheet-pile wall along the harbor’s landward (west) side.

The increased number of slips is less than half the projected 270 slips of a northward expansion, but advantages of southward expansion include borough control of uplands and potentially fewer problems with a soft sea floor.

“We can resolve almost every one of our (Army) Corps (of Engineers) issues on the south side,” Studley said.

Committee chair Mike Mackowiak said remaining questions include whether a southward expansion could dovetail into work already done toward a northward one, including a Corps-determined ratio of costs to benefits. “Can the north cost-benefit analysis be shifted to this project? If it can, this is a no-brainer.”

Harbor committee members hope an upcoming meeting with the Corps will answer those questions.

The cost of the four options would likely range between $20 million and $30 million, pricetags comparable to those of expanding the harbor north. The wave barrier and a 500-foot sheet pile wall, including uplands development, each may cost around $5 million.

“You’re probably going to gasp. It’s going to be a big number,” PND vice-president Dick Somerville said of the most expensive scenario.

The drive-down float, that saves fishermen considerable time by allowing them to pull cars beside their vessels, would help boost the project’s estimated benefits, committee members said. Potential use by summertime shuttle ferries and the coupling of uplands work with planned road improvements by the State of Alaska could further boost economics of a southward expansion, they said.

Members said breaking a south expansion into its components, then building it in phases, also may advance the project.

Mackowiak said the west-side, sheet-pile wall would run up the cost. PND’s Somerville said its cost might be $1 million per 100 feet. Somerville said he’d bring prices of individual elements to the committee’s next meeting.

Author