Transportation

Fuel fees for long term tenants at the Juneau Airport will stay the same.

Rate and fee increases at the Airport were approved by the CBJ Assembly earlier this month. But after discussions with airport tenants and users, the airport board decided Wednesday night to reverse some of the increases.

Airport tenants include local helicopter companies and small commuter airlines.

Airport manager Patty deLaBruere says the board was able to maintain current fuel fees for non-transient users, “We did still have some Airport Fund Balance that we could use to help offset some of the expenses without raising all the rates.”

Reversing the fuel fee increase for non-transient users will mean taking $135,000 from the Airport Fund Balance.

Rate increases are still set for other areas like landing fees for larger aircrafts, land lease rates, and terminal lease rents. A significant increase to aircraft parking fees, which will double for some users, will be phased in over two years.

“It is a jump and one of the things we looked at was there’s been a lot of improvements. There’s a lot of maintenance that goes on down there and it’s been a number of years since these rates were raised,” says deLaBruere.

Money generated from the fee hikes will go toward airport budget increases, including new security personnel from the Juneau Police Department, an additional cost of $300,000.

Also discussed at Wednesday night’s airport board meeting was runway rehabilitation. According to deLaBruere the runway surface is deteriorating. SECON started temporary patching of cracks and potholes Wednesday night.

DeLaBruere calls the temporary patches a band-aide until the entire runway pavement is redone, something the FAA says is necessary.

“We are currently working with the FAA on some funding for the project to try to get this done next summer. It’s a very aggressive design and plan and funding but it’s got to be done, and it really truly is a safety measure.”

Current runway work should take about a week, weather depending, and is being done after-hours between 10:30 pm and 6 am.

Update: The LeConte will resume service Sunday, June 16, but about 5½ hours behind schedule. The Malaspina will sail Juneau to Gustavus roundtrip on Saturday night to alleviate stranded travelers in Gustavus. The ferry will depart Auke Bay at 10 .p.m and return in time to sail Lynn Canal as scheduled Sunday morning.

The LeConte’s revised schedule is:

6/16 – Depart Juneau: 12:30 p.m.
6/16 – Arrive Hoonah: 3:45 p.m.
6/16 – Depart Hoonah: 4:45 p.m.
6/16 – Arrive Tenakee: 8 p.m.
6/16 – Depart Tenakee: 8:30 p.m.
6/16 – Arrive Angoon: 10:45 p.m.

Earlier report: Onboard mechanical problems continue to delay some Alaska Marine Highway sailings.

The ferry LeConte is at the Ketchikan Shipyard due to a recurring issue with its bow thruster.

Marine highway spokesman Jeremy Woodrow says it will take close examination to determine what needs to be fixed.

“Because of where the bow thruster is located and the nature of the issue, it’s required to be put up on drydock and the closest drydock is in Ketchikan,” he says.

The bow thruster is a two-way engine that helps maneuver the front of the vessel. Thruster problems cancelled several sailings earlier this month.

The 300-passenger, 35-vehicle LeConte is scheduled to be back in service June 15th. But Woodrow says it could take another day or so.

The ship is based in Juneau and sails to Angoon, Hoonah, Tenakee, Gustavus and Pelican this time of year.

The ferry Matanuska had its own mechanical problems earlier this week.

Woodrow says they were in the engine room. Repairs delayed the ship’s Prince Rupert departure by three hours.

That’s affecting arrival and departure times through early Saturday morning.

“What really put them behind schedule is that it made them miss the tide in the Wrangell Narrows, so they were delayed it Ketchikan for a longer time than they wanted to be,” he says.

The ship sails from Rupert to Skagway, with stops in Ketchikan, Wrangell, Petersburg, Juneau and Haines. It can carry about 500 passengers and 90 vehicles.

The ferry Tustumena remains at Seward’s shipyard after a winter repair project found additional issues. Woodrow says it should return to service July 24th. The ship carries up to 175 passengers and 35 vehicles

He says the marine highway’s eight other vessels are sailing without significant problems.

Schedule updates are available from ferry terminals or the AMHS central reservations office at 1-907-465-3941, toll free at 1-800-642-0066.

Capital Transit gave more than a million rides in Juneau last year.

If you’re a regular passenger, or have never taken a bus before, your input is important to the capital city bus system.

The CBJ-operated service is updating its development plan and holding two public meetings this week as well as conducting an online survey.

The Transit Development Study is updated every five years.  City planner Ben Lyman calls it an improvement plan for the system.

“We’re looking at which stops need to be improved or changed, which types of vehicles need to be purchased, what types of maintenance issues we’re having,” Lyman says. “We’re looking at on-time performance, the needs of existing riders, and also we’re looking at perceptions about the system by non-riders. Why do people who could ride transit choose not to, and what might encourage them to do so?”

Lyman says the study analyzes existing performance through the eyes of riders as well as financing, costs per vehicle mile and per passenger, and other operational accounting.

“We had surveyors ride on all of the routes a month or so ago and conduct surveys of riders and look at where each and every person gets on or off of the bus,” he says.

They also were looking at transfers.  “Now we’re taking that information  and trying to figure out if Capital Transit is operating as efficiently as it could be,” he says.

Meilani Schijvens of Sheinberg Associates is working on the study with transportation consultants Nelson/Nygaard.  Schijvens says ridership increased 5 percent in the past year.

“We surveyed over 11-hundred passengers and the number one complaint is it’s too crowded. So in a way they’re (Capital Transit) doing a very good job, almost too good of a job,” she says.

In addition to the onboard ridership survey, Schijven says consultants conducted interviews with various employers, the university, Tlingit and Haida Housing Authority, and other entities. Now it’s time for an online survey and two open houses.

The first is Tuesday from 4 to 6:30 p.m. at the Mendenhall Valley Library.  Wednesday’s open house is at the Downtown Library, also from 4 to 6: 30 p.m.

Lyman says transportation consultants often look for bus system similarities in other communities, but Juneau doesn’t easily compare.  That’s because it’s such a linear system.

“We’re set up sort of ideally for transit because it’s very easy to serve that linear development with a single bus line.  If we were a big sprawling area with multiple centers and many different residential areas, it’d be much harder to choreograph how people could move through that community,” he says. “Most places don’t have the geographic constraints that we have with mountains on one side and ocean on another so they end up being much more sprawling than what we are here in Juneau.”

Capital Transit operates 18 buses that have 150 stops; 44 of them have shelters.

A Sitka-based barge line hopes to return to serving Southeast by the end of the year. It depends on a shipping-industry shuffle, where a much larger company is trying to absorb its chief competitor.

Samson Tug and Barge used to do a lot of business with loggers and mills around Southeast Alaska.

But as the timber industry shrunk, the line’s service area moved farther west. The Sitka-based company now carries cargo to and from Seattle, Prince William Sound, the Kenai Peninsula, Kodiak, King Cove and Dutch Harbor.

The list could expand – later this year.

“We started in Southeast, we still have our headquarters in Southeast, so why not be in Southeast. It just makes sense,” said Samson Tug and Barge Vice President Cory Baggen.

“We’ve looked at entering the Southeast market over the years. But with two carriers in the region there really hasn’t been room for a third,” she said.

That number could shrink later this year.

Lynden, which owns Alaska Marine Lines, is in the process of buying Northland Services. The two lines handle the lion’s share of cargo shipments to Southeast communities.

Samson does some barging to and from Sitka. Baggen said the purchase allows her company to compete in other communities.

“Our plans right now are to serve Ketchikan, Juneau, Wrangell, Petersburg, all of Prince of Wales Island and Metlakatla,” Baggen said.

Northland’s barge line will continue to exist as a Lynden subsidiary. But operations will be combined in Southeast towns that both serve.

The purchase has to clear a number of hurdles. Among the concerns: The combination could effectively create a monopoly.

Lynden CEO Jon Burdick said that’s why his corporation supports Samson’s Southeast expansion.

“There is a regulatory review process and the state of Alaska wants to ensure that where there’s competitive overlap between Lynden and Northland, that there’s alternative services available,” he said.

Burdick said buying Northland expands Lynden’s service area to Western Alaska, as well as Hawaii.

But he said Lynden’s Alaska Marine Lines subsidiary will not reduce Southeast port calls.

“At a minimum, they’ll receive equal frequency of service. In terms of equaling what AML’s doing now or what AML plus Northland’s doing now? AML plus Northland,” he said.

Burdick expects most Northland employees will either keep their jobs or find new ones with Alaska Marine Lines or Samson Tug and Barge.

Baggen said her company will be hiring.

“Eventually, we’ll probably double our size, probably have somewhere between 120 and 160 employees. … Most of those employees will be in Alaska,” she said.

Baggen understands her company will compete against a much larger operation.

She said Samson will do that by providing personalized customer service.

“We’re not the box-box carrier. We’re not going to be the one that says you better do it at this time in this way. We don’t care how you want to do it. We’re going to say, hey, what do you need and we’re going to do the best we can to come in and really work for the customers,” she said.

Both companies expect the sale to be completed by the end of this year.

And both say they’ll be ready for a quick transition.

Around this time last year, it looked like Adak’s jet service was in jeopardy. Alaska Airlines wanted to stop flying there, and it was only after much back and forth that they conceded to continue serving the community, on a trial basis.

Now, the uncertainty appears to be over. Alaska Airlines was the only company that responded to a recent request from the federal Department of Transportation for bids on the community’s Essential Air Service contract, and they’ve agreed to commit for two years.

Marilyn Romano is the airline’s regional vice president. She says Alaska decided to bid even after the news that Icicle Seafoods would be shuttering its processing plant on the island because other companies — and industries — are poised to make up some of the traffic.

“None of us can predict the future, but people in the community of Adak feel like there are some possibilities for growth, possibly even in the oil industry, and so we take all of that into consideration when making a decision,” Romano says.

But Alaska Airlines’ commitment to Adak in the face of an uncertain future will come at a cost. The company is asking the federal government to increase their subsidy for the route by half a million dollars, for a total of $2 million a year. Romano says that factors in the loss of passenger and cargo revenues from the processing plant, and potential increases in the price of jet fuel.

For its part, Adak appears to be fully in support of Alaska Airlines’ proposal. City manager Layton Lockett says continued jet service is critical to the community’s development, a sentiment that fish buyer Pete Hartman echoes in a letter to the DOT. His company, Hart Sales, started shipping fresh fish off the island after Icicle’s closure, and he writes “without the Jet services of Alaska Airlines to the lower 48 markets I will have to cease our operation.”

The DOT will review the bid and is expected to make a decision about whether to award the contract in the coming weeks.

Approximately 100 passengers and employees were evacuated Monday morning when the smell of diesel fumes started to fill the Juneau International Airport terminal shortly after a power outage occurred in Mendenhall Valley.

Acting Airport Manager Patty deLaBruere said during the sweep, firefighters from Capital City Fire and Rescue  noticed an additional smokey smell toward the back of the building and continued to investigate.

“When the power went out at the airport and throughout the valley, one of the things we noted was that the generators were not coming on for the airport. And shortly thereafter there was a very strong burnt diesel smell throughout the terminal in very specific parts. Se we elected to evacuate the terminal based on that even when the power did come back up. While the fire department was doing a search, we had that diesel smell finally dissipate.”

While passengers standing in the parking lot could see the ladder from the CCFR ladder truck moving around the airport tower, most passed the time on their cellphones.

Employees were brought back in to the building to get computer equipment set up shortly after 11 a.m. Passengers  started wheeling in their luggage at 11:43 a.m.

deLaBruere said firefighters did not locate any fire in the building, but fumes in the back area of the boiler room may have been the cause of the burnt diesel smell.

“But they were fairly confident that it did dissipate out and that’s why they’ve given us the all clear. They have not found any other sources,” deLaBruere said as people were re-entering the terminal.

No flights were affected.

Original Story: June 3, 2013 – 11:59 a.m.

Juneau International Airport was evacuated this morning due to the smell of diesel and smoke in the building.

There was no smoke or fire; instead a power outage was the culprit. According to Acting Airport Manager Patty deLaBruere, once the power came back on, airport generators did not start, and burnt diesel could be smell throughout the building.

Firefighters arrived and so did KTOO reporter Heather Bryant.  She reports the airport was evacuated, with staff, passengers and luggage waiting outside while firefighters did a sweep, shortly before 11 a.m.

“When the firefighters began their sweep they started to notice another smoky type smell at the back of the building, so at this time they’re still sweeping the floors and the road  as well, trying to determine  the location of that smoke,” Bryant said from the airport.

 People were allowed back into the building about 11:45 a.m.  deLaBruere says the smell appears to have been caused by a buildup of fumes in the boiler room.

The power went out at 10:17 Monday morning, affecting a large area from Lemon Creek through the Mendenhall Valley and out Glacier Highway, according to Alaska Electric Light and Power spokeswoman Deb Ferriera.  She says an eagle lost his lunch.

“Essentially an eagle picked up some garbage from the landfill and flew over the transmission line and whatever it was holding in its talons came in contact with the transmission line, opening basically all the feeders from lemon Creek all the way out the road,” she says.

Ferriera says an AELP crew in a bucket truck cleared the line and power was restored by 11:02.

This story was updated with comments from Acting Airport Manager Patty deLaBruere.