The rebuilt Port Chilkoot Dock will be ready for the docking of the first large cruise ship May 21 and will be dedicated June 5, according to Haines Borough public facilities director Carlos Jimenez.

“The contractor has done a fine job and the facility looks great,” Jimenez said.

The project, contracted to Pacific Pile and Marine, is ahead of schedule but will cost more than the original $4.96 million price tag, due to significant changes including a $54,000 redecking of the 20-year-old approach dock and installation of a catwalk between the dock and a relocated mooring dolphin.

The decking was in mediocre condition and the catwalk was installed due to relocation of the dolphin made at the request of longshoremen, Jimenez said. The final cost of the add-ons should be known by May 15, he said.

Structural work on the dock is basically complete. Remaining work includes a concrete section between the dock and parking apron that may be poured this week. Plumbing and electrical work also is ongoing but only a few items may remain by May 21.

Jimenez said an “up ramp” near the dock abutment isn’t a mistake, but the relocation of two ramps that previously had been located toward the face of the dock. Because the dock has been built in stages – including the extended dock face in 1994 and the abutment and parking area in 2010 – it couldn’t be made level during the project, he explained.

The elevation of the dock face was established in 1994, based on freeboard of mooring vessels, lower than the historic timber trestle, which was apparently too high for vessels. Most of the new dock is 3.2 feet lower than the previous structure, but that elevation couldn’t be maintained along its entire length without lowering the abutment.

That abutment couldn’t be changed easily, as its elevation and that of the parking apron was determined by the elevation of adjacent Beach Road. “If the ramp had been omitted from the project, the new parking lot would have required substantial re-grading to account for the elevation change,” Jimenez said. 

A lowered dock surface also reduced the grade of the gangway leading to the dock’s lightering float, he said. The steepness of the gangway had been a problem for visitors.

At Letnikof Cove, Pacific Pile and Marine recently finished pier modifications and the gangway previously used at Port Chilkoot Dock has been installed. Float anchor piles for existing and new segmental floats are currently being installed.

The Port Chilkoot and Letnikof harbor projects were awarded under the same contract totaling $5.8 million.