A revised Lutak Dock renovation plan could save the Haines Borough tens of millions of dollars.
The Lutak Dock face has reached the end of its service life and officially closed last year after Alaska Marine Lines completed construction of a new freight ramp, ensuring Haines’ supply chain remains intact.
Dock face renovations were estimated to cost at least $30 million. The borough has been considering funding for the project through sources including federal grants and is in discussions regarding a low interest loan through the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA), a state-funded entity that helps finance mining and other industrial development projects. This winter, the assembly hired lobbyist Ted Popely to advocate for state funding for capital projects including the dock.
The new plan for dock renovations is a phased approach, developed with help from R&M Consultants, according to interim manager Alekka Fullerton. Phase one involves filling in tidelands adjacent to the existing dock, next to the new barge ramp’s location.
“By doing that, we recapture close to two acres of uplands. It would be riprap and fill, so we could switch over to using that in addition to the roll-on, roll-off facility,” Fullerton said. “Phase one, alone, would solve our problem, resulting in a usable dock.”
The cost estimate for this phase is $7 million. “We already have two million dollars in the Lutak Dock fund. It just makes it seem more and more attainable,” she said.
The push to reexamine dock repair plans came from Haines’ state representatives.
“We heard from some of our elected officials, like Senator Jesse Kiehl and Representative Sara Hannan. They were asking us to make sure we had a plan in place if we got ten million dollars,” Fullerton said, adding that her understanding is that the smaller amount would be more likely to receive funding.
As of May 15, less than a week from the constitutionally-mandated end date for the legislative session, state representatives said they were still working on securing funding for the project. Lawmakers have yet to finalize capital and operating budgets for the fiscal year beginning July 1.
“We are in the most chaotic part of the session, where one day looks like a healthy capital budget and the next looks like none at all. We’re working to get Haines help using any and all tools available to us,” Kiehl said.
Subsequent phases of Lutak Dock renovations could include refurbishing the existing dock face and recapturing additional tidelands in front of the parking lot for the state ferry terminal. The total cost, including phase one, is an estimated $26 million.
Fullerton said the borough is in the process of developing a fourth part of the plan in which fill for the project is sourced from the hillside behind the dock.
“Behind Lutak Dock, the hill is all ours. We hadn’t really thought much about it because it’s super steep, but we have learned because we used fill from there for the (freight ramp),” she said. Sourcing fill from the hillside has the double benefit of reducing costs and leveling out the hillside for future use.