Representatives for Turnagain Marine Construction were in Haines last week to present their 65% design for renovating the local freight and fuel dock. The construction company shared its plans with the Ports and Harbor Committee, during a town hall, and at a Planning Commission meeting. About thirty residents asked questions and submitted comments. KHNS’s Alain d’Epremesnil reports.
The Lutak dock was constructed in 1953 and has seen a continuous flow of freight containers arrive and leave Haines over the decades. The dock has reached the end of its 60-year service life and the structure is currently not in use
As the rebuilding planning progresses, the design is approaching its final form. Two big changes have been made to the last version. The dock wall is now tied by large rods, at an angle into the bedrock. A thick slab of concrete will run along the top of the wall. Engineers added a new feature, called a notch ramp. It is similar to those cuts on sidewalks that allow wheelchair access, but this one is twenty feet wide and deep enough to set a ramp from dock level to the deck of a small vessel at low tide.
Haines residents have been interested in the $28 million design plan for the dock from the start. And this last meeting was no different – many residents sent letters, and attended the presentations to ask questions to the construction company.
Thom Ely said he is concerned about contaminants.
Ely: “Do you recommend any kind of environmental analysis such as bottom sampling around the dock or look for contaminants before construction starts?”
Jason Davis, president of Turnagain, answered.
Davis: “We will sample anything that’s going to be taken off site. So one of the motivations to not excavate down and remove either the whole structure or dig down for the tiebacks is so that we don’t expose the sediment that is behind the wall. Because we are not dredging or removing the material in front of the wall, we won’t be sampling outside the wall.”
Resident Eric Holle doubted that the metal wall would prevent contaminants leaching into the water and made a recommendation:
Holle: “Before you get a cement cap over everything, this might be the appropriate time for the borough to get involved with state and federal agencies to assess existing contamination in the dock that’s there and also to determine who is actually going to pay for any clean up that might be required.”
Resident Dawn Drotos asked about mitigating the impact of construction on wildlife.
Drotos: “I’m wondering whether the construction process and timing could be altered to offset impacts to various species found in Lutak inlet, not all of which are of commercial value but are of significant subsistence and cultural value.”
Davis answered that they have an environmental team with two people working on that full time.
Davis: “The biological assessment has been drafted its getting ready to submit to the agencies for review, they are doing all the studies required for the permit, and that includes the monitoring plan, the noise mitigation plan, and scheduling the work at the least impactful time is definitely one of the considerations, and something that we are going to follow the guidelines of the agencies on.”
Other residents asked about the design. They wanted to know if the project could be scaled back, maybe to half its footprint, or even replaced with some free standing dolphins.
Davis’s answer was the same for all of them.
Davis: “If you were to build a dock for AML to move containers across, that would be a completely valid solution. But it doesn’t address the pending environmental and safety issue of this dock collapsing behind it. If it was acceptable to let the cells deteriorate and for all the material to fall in the Lynn canal and to be carried away, then you could ignore the existing dock, put a couple dolphins out in from of it and extend the ramp, and you could unload containers all day long.”
Behind many of the comments is the fear that the new dock may serve for the transfer of ore. Some mines in the Yukon are currently using Skagway as an ore terminal and may have an interest in Haines, and more mines are set to be approved. This would generate heavy truck traffic that would cut right through downtown. In a letter, one resident said he was dismayed, quote “at the prospect of this route being used to transform Haines into an industrial corridor.”
Jessica Plachta, director of Lynn Canal Conservation, put it another way:
Plachta: “The best way to prevent ore transport through our communities is to refrain from building a dock that’s capable of transporting ore. Lutak inlet is in a geohazard zone, anything stored on the dock is at risk of being washed at sea by a landslide, earthquakes, or leaching over time after being spilled at the dock. Let’s protect our communities and our landscape from unacceptable, unnecessary risk.”
On Thursday night, the planning commission voted to approve the 65% design. The borough assembly will receive a final price for the project on February 28th.
