Transportation

The single busiest spot in Juneau during the summer cruise ship season may be South Franklin Street in front of the Mount Roberts Tramway building. Up to five of the massive ships can be in town at once, each unloading and reloading thousands of crew and passengers in a few hours. There are buses, container trucks, float planes, and aerial tram cars all coming and going within a few hundred feet of each other.

And, it’s surprisingly orderly.

On Friday, there was also a ribbon cutting ceremony there attended by about 45 city and state officials, contractors and local business owners. They celebrated new pedestrian and parking improvements on the busy cruise ship waterfront.

The tourists footing much of the bill went about their sightseeing and shopping, while liberal thanks were paid to the officials and workers involved.

“As an engineer, I do really appreciate concrete, asphalt, curb and gutter,” said Juneau Rep. Sam Kito III. “I mean, the things that people might not necessarily appreciate have a lot of aesthetics to me. The efficiencies of moving pedestrians and moving vehicles is underappreciated. I’m enjoying being here, on concrete, near asphalt seeing this whole project work.”

It wasn’t always so orderly. Kirby Day remembers back in 1993, before much of this stuff was here.

“Looking out here, this was all just dirt. There was no tram, there was not much anything. And at that time when we lined buses up, we tried to lime the lines, and then it’d rain, and, you know, it disappeared. And then we put (out) barrels,” said Day, who is the director of shore operations for Princess Cruises and longtime point man for cruise ship relations in Juneau. “We’d come out at night and set the barrels up, and that’s where the buses were supposed to go, and then they’d come the next morning, and the operators really didn’t like it there, so they’d just move them. So, this will be a little bit better for all, I hope.”

The improvements are part of a long-term city plan to create a continuous, mile-and-a-half long seawalk from the Juneau-Douglas Bridge to the AJ Dock, the cruise ship berth farthest from downtown.

Patricia Stancil, visiting from Pensacola, Florida, was sitting on a bench nearby during the ceremony. She wasn’t sure what the ceremony was about, but was in the ballpark.

“It sounds he was trying to raise funds to improve the city or whatever it is,” Stancil said.

Stancil, and millions of other visitors like her over the years, have paid millions toward Juneau’s public waterfront infrastructure through cruise ship passenger fees the city and state collect.

Friday’s ribbon cutting specifically celebrated the completion of a $3 million contract for reconfiguring a bus and pedestrian staging area, and a nearly complete $3.4 million contract to extend the seawalk.

State ferry service to Skagway resumes on Sunday.

Alaska Marine Highway ferries have not been running to Skagway since the ferry dock there sank on April 24th. The state was able to contract with a marine salvage and repair company out of Juneau for an emergency sole source contract, and the dock was re-floated a few days later.

Since then, the company has been inspecting and repairing damaged parts of the dock. The likely cause of the sinking is a water pipe under the dock that burst, flooding the hollow compartments that keep the dock afloat. Repairs have also been made to the passenger ramp that was partially submerged, the electrical systems and the vehicle ramp hydraulic system.

To date, the salvage and repair costs have run about a half million dollars, according to the state. Permanent repair work will be ongoing but not affect ferry service, according to a press release for the Marine Highway System.

Previous Coverage:

[icon name=”icon-angle-right”]Burst water pipe likely cause for Skagway ferry dock sinking
[icon name=”icon-angle-right”]Skagway dock is floating again
[icon name=”icon-angle-right”]kagway dock salvage and repair to begin
[icon name=”icon-angle-right”]kagway dock still underwater
[icon name=”icon-angle-right”]AMHS dock in Skagway sinks

State transportation officials agree that a burst water pipe likely caused the Skagway ferry dock to sink last month. Repairs continue in hopes of getting the dock operational and returning ferry service to the Southeast community within the next week.

The state is making repairs and some modifications to the dock now that it’s floating again.

Department of Transportation spokesperson Jeremy Woodrow says it’s not yet known how much the salvage and repairs from the sinking will cost the state.

Woodrow says the state is hoping to resume ferry service to Skagway on May 11. A final decision on that timeline will be made later this week, he said.

The Skagway ferry dock is floating again. But it’s still not ready to host Alaska Marine Highway ferries.

Western Marine Construction of Juneau began working at low tide Tuesday to pump water out of the chambers that float the dock.

State transportation department spokesman Jeremy Woodrow says all 24 chambers were flooded. He says it’s still not clear why.

Skagway city officials think a potable water pipe that runs from the ferry terminal to the dock and underneath may have burst, but Woodrow says the state is not yet ready to declare that as the official cause.

He says DOT engineers are inspecting the dock and divers will exam the structure underwater.

Early estimates indicate repairs may run around $400,000. Woodrow says passenger ramp, electrical system and vehicle ramp hydraulic system repairs are underway, and other work will likely need to be done.

Ferry service has been suspended to Skagway until at least May 9^th.

Skagway remains cut off from ferry service as the state figures out why the ferry terminal dock sank last Thursday.

The state transportation department has contracted with Western Marine Construction to begin salvaging and repairing the dock. The company moved two barges to the town over the weekend and will try refloating the dock on Tuesday or Wednesday. However, repairs will still be needed before Alaska Marine Highway ships can tie up again, according to  DOT spokesman Jeremy Woodrow.

“We’ll know a lot more once we get the dock floated again and will be able to access the damage,” Woodrow says. “Then we’ll be able to devise a plan from there.”

Why the dock sank is a mystery, though Skagway Mayor Mark Schaefer says some of the individual concrete chambers that float the structure may have flooded.

Skagway’s potable water system’s 3-inch pipe runs from the terminal to the dock and part-way underneath, making it easy for state ferries to resupply with water.

Schaefer says Skagway uses an average of 300,000 gallons of water every 24 hours from the municipal supply, but between Wednesday evening and Thursday morning the city registered 800,000 gallons of water used.  That leads city officials to think the potable water pipe under the dock may have burst, filling the floats and causing it to sink.

Essentially we think we flooded the float and sank it that way. But we’re not sure yet. We know we used a whole bunch of water and it’s not bubbling up in the street somewhere. It’s a significant amount of water,” Schaefer says.

The dock is a 120-foot by 160-foot platform that sits on 24 hollow concrete chambers. Mayor Schaefer compares the floating mechanism to a concrete ice cube tray. The potable water line runs through several of those compartments, hence the theory about the burst pipe flooding the floats, he says.

Woodrow says the state is aware of the theory, but is investigating all possibilities at this point.

Due to the urgency of the situation, the state was able to bypass the bidding process and established a sole source contract with Western Marine, Woodrow says.

The state has suspended ferry service to the town until at least May 9.  A Haines-based ferry company, the Fjordland, has tentatively scheduled service between Haines and Skagway on days the state ferry sails the Lynn Canal.

Alaska Seaplanes and Air Excursions have added flights to Skagway while ferry service is suspended.

The Skagway ferry dock is still resting on the seafloor, after sinking on Thursday.

State Department of Transportation officials say they’re working on a salvage and repair plan, but don’t know the extent of damage to the dock used by the Alaska Marine Highway System.

The dock started sinking overnight Wednesday and by early Thursday was totally submerged at high tide. DOT engineers have been on-site and have not yet determined a cause.

DOT spokesman Jeremy Woodrow says once a plan is set, the department will issue a request for proposals so work can begin immediately to recover and repair the dock. He says a diver will inspect for damage after the dock has been refloated.

Oil absorbent boom was deployed around the area Thursday and remains in place.

“We’ve removed all the fuel that was to the fuel lines that ran onto the dock. And we’ve removed the hydraulic oil that was in the mechanism that raises and lowers the ramp, so we basically have removed all contaminants from the dock,” Woodrow says. “But we still have an oil boom deployed just as a precautionary measure.”

The 160-foot by 120-foot dock is comprised of 24 individual concrete chambers that have all been inspected within the last year, with no indication of wear, Woodrow says.

All state ferries to Skagway have been cancelled for two weeks. Woodrow says marine highway system officials have determined that a ferry traffic alternative is not available in Skagway.

Ferry updates will be posted at FerryAlaska.com, or toll-free at 800-642-0066. The Juneau ferry terminal number is (907) 465-3941.