Skagway officials announced late on Friday that the municipality and the Alaska Department of Transportation have reached a deal to begin developing a new location for the state ferry terminal in Skagway. Meanwhile, rockslides continue to damage Skagway’s busiest cruise ship dock. The attenuator net White Pass and Yukon Route installed to force rocks below the north end of the Railroad Dock was destroyed by rockfall last week. No ships are scheduled to dock there for the rest of this year. As KHNS’ Mike Swasey reports, (now) the municipality is moving forward with a plan that will allow for a full cruise calendar during the 2023 season. 

A deal between the Municipality of Skagway and the State of Alaska Department of Transportation has been reached to co-fund initial design plans to relocate the town’s state ferry terminal from its current location on the Broadway Peninsula to the west side of the harbor at the Ore Peninsula. Mayor Andrew Cremata says the agreement could open up more waterfront opportunities for the municipality.

What that means is it would vacate the entire Broadway Peninsula and make that open to Municipal Development,” said Cremata.

He says it’s one of the biggest developments in Skagway since the signing of the 55-year lease agreement with White Pass and Yukon Route in 1968.

This is a golden opportunity for this community to look at development of the Broadway peninsula as a wonderful visitor experience fully dedicated to cruise traffic that goes right up the heart of Broadway,” said Cremata.

The agreement calls for 20% design costs to be split 50/50 between the state and the municipality. Any further development would be driven by the community.

Multiple design concepts produced over the last decade feature the Broadway Peninsula as the centerpiece of Skagway’s waterfront redesign following the expiration of the lease agreement with White Pass next March. But long-term goals aren’t the only issues facing Skagway. Rockslides continue to damage the Railroad Dock and without a solution, many wonder how usable the dock will be next year. In response, the municipality is moving forward with a short-term plan to berth four ships on any given day during the 2023 cruise season. The central part of that plan is to allow large cruise ships to berth at the Ore Dock.

In a special meeting on Tuesday night, Skagway’s assembly voted unanimously to move forward with a full mission bridge simulation of docking Post-Panamax-sized cruise ships at the Ore Dock. The simulation will determine whether the large ships can safely dock during various conditions, including wave action, high winds, and currents.

Assemblymember Sam Bass used simulators during his time with the US Coast Guard. He told KHNS that with six large viewing screens arranged around a working model of a ship’s bridge, the simulator resembles a big video game.

It’s just like an airplane simulator would be but it’s for large vessel simulations. They can model, you know, wave conditions, weather conditions, the vessel’s characteristics, and you can really see, you know, how that vessel will operate in those conditions. It’s neat, you know, the whole platform moves, it really feels like you’re on the, on the bridge of a ship,” said Bass.

Some cruise lines have said they won’t consider berthing large ships at the Ore Dock without a completed simulation which cost the municipality about $100,000.

The rest of the plan calls for another ship on Broadway Dock, and two smaller ships at the south end of the Railroad Dock, out of the way of the large north rockslide area. 

During the special meeting on Tuesday night, Assemblymember Orion Hanson said that they aren’t ruling out any potential solutions at this time.

“I have talked to Manager Ryan quite a bit about this, about adding more piers or dolphins to the south. And I think all options are on the table. With the uncertainty of the rockslide, with the amount we just saw from Shannon & Wilson for remediating that rockslide, I think we have to consider everything,” said Hanson.

Initial design plans for mitigating rockslide dangers can be found here.

***This article has been corrected to remove mention of a transfer of ownership of Skagway’s Broadway Peninsula***