The Haines small boat harbor. (Henry Leasia / KHNS)

The first phase of the Haines small boat harbor expansion is wrapping up. The $13 million construction project included deepening the harbor basin, building a steel wave barrier, replacing moorage pilings and increasing the uplands.

Construction on the harbor project began in February of 2017.

Pacific Pile and Marine, the company that was contracted to carry out the expansion, had planned to finish phase one by the start of this year. However, the dredging process to deepen the harbor basin was more time-consuming than they had anticipated. Now the company is asking the borough for more than $1 million in compensation for the additional work. Both parties are still working toward a conclusion.

In spite of these setbacks, Public Facilities Director Brad Ryan said that the project is currently on schedule.

“The proposed timeline by Pacific Pile and Marine went longer than they had anticipated, but it didn’t go beyond what the borough’s proposed deadline was. So we had to be done in this month according to our contract documents,” Ryan said.

The harbor project has been a divisive issue for many Haines residents since it was first proposed. Supporters said that it is a necessary investment in the local fishing economy, while critics argued it would disrupt a beautiful waterfront and turn it into an eyesore.

Ryan said he is pleased with the results of phase one.

“Well, it looks great now. The harbor seems nice and protected. If you’ve been inside the wall on windy days, it seems pretty smooth in there. There was a lot of concern about how the wall was going to look and a lot of people are somewhat pleased with the look of it. It’s not as big and intrusive as people thought it was going to be,” Ryan said.

Although there is no more active construction taking place, the first phase is not officially complete yet. Currently, the borough is waiting for a response from the Army Corps of Engineers. Ryan said the corps is reviewing some changes made to the breakwater.

The new pilings and steel wave barrier at the Haines small boat harbor. (Henry Leasia / KHNS)

“They had to take the end of the breakwater off and put larger rocks on because of the reflection of the waves from the new steel breakwater. The rubble breakwater is actually owned by the corps of engineers, so they have to sign off on the construction. They came down and visited earlier this month and did an inspection. We’re waiting on their official response,” Ryan said.

The next phase of the project includes construction of a sport fishing ramp and a parking lot upgrade.

“We anticipate seeing 65% completion of the design in August. And we would move forward from there. Ideally, we would be in construction next summer or maybe even sooner,” Ryan said.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is willing to fund the sport ramp and parking lot upgrades, but the borough has yet to secure funding for the next phases of the project. Those improvements would add floats for moorage and a drive down ramp for commercial fisherman to load and unload gear.

“We would have to either go out and secure more funding through grants or whatever other means we can, or the harbor as an enterprise fund and eventually maybe it could start to put in some small parts of that facility,” Ryan said. “Right now we just want to get through the sport ramp part of the project and then we would be moving on to phase three and four.”

The sport fishing ramp will be paid for with federal money funneled through ADF&G. Preliminary cost estimates for phase two are between $3 and $5 million.