The second phase of the city’s single most expensive capital improvement project is now underway.
Seattle-based marine construction outfit Manson Construction is working day and night on the northern terminal of the city’s cruise ship berth project — a $54 million effort to revamp the two city-owned cruise ship docks downtown.
The second phase of the project will make room for a second thousand-foot-plus ship to dock at the terminal nearest Marine Park and the Merchant’s Wharf. But one Juneau business is worried that the harbor might be getting a little too tight.
Like the first dock, which Manson finished earlier this year, the city’s second Panamax cruise terminal will extend out into the harbor off of the existing wooden dock. This creates extra room for vessels, allowing larger ships — up to 1,100 feet — to use the dock. In doing so, however, it also puts a ship in the path of Wings Airways floatplanes planes landing and taking off at the Wharf, where they stage.
Speaking to the Docks and Harbors Board at a recent meeting, Al Clough, co-owner and vice president for Wings Airways, said that pilots can work around the ships, but they can’t do so unless the existing lightering float is moved.
“It just plain doesn’t work,” Clough told the board. “It’s just too tight of a situation. It’s not safe for our pilots. It’s not safe for our aircraft. It’s not safe for our passengers. It’s not safe for vessels. It’s not safe for anyone.”
The lightering float juts into the harbor between the northern cruise ship terminal and the Wharf, just yards from the docks where Wings Airways’ floatplanes land. According to Clough, Wings pilots spent this past season practicing landing as if the new cruise berth were complete.
What they found was that the nearby lightering float won’t give the floatplanes the space they need to take off and land safely once larger ships dock closer to the Wharf.
Wings Airways co-owner and President Holly Johnson also spoke at that Docks and Harbors board meeting, requesting the city to consider moving the lightering float.
“The key here is the safety of the aircraft,” Johnson told the Empire in an interview Monday. “But our other big concern is being a good member of the community.”
Johnson said that Wings Airways wants to work with the city to come up with a solution that works for both parties and the ships that use the lightering float. Juneau’s Port Director Carl Uchytil hopes to do the same.
Uchytil said that the Docks and Harbors board will take up the issue at its Oct. 19 meeting. Because the board hasn’t yet formally taken up the issue, Uchytil said he is unsure what it will decide to do.
“We’re always looking after the safety of the citizens as well as our guests, and if the aviation community tells us that they’re going to be impacted by the project, we need to look at that seriously,” Uchytil said.
Manson’s crew will be working 12 hours per day, six days per week — plus an additional night shift — for the next few months in order to meet its May 7 deadline for the multimillion dollar project.
Uchytil said that doing marine construction during the winter is tough, and it’s even more difficult in Juneau than most places. Still, he doesn’t believe that Manson will have a problem completing the berth before the cruise season starts next spring.
“I have complete confidence they’ll be done on time,” he said.
• Contact reporter Sam DeGrave at 523-2279 or sam.degrave@juneauempire.com.
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