In addition to the road projects it’s planning for next summer, the Alaska Department of Transportation is preparing some improvements to the Marine Highway as well.
“Kake will … get a new terminal building along with sanitary sewer and water lines,” ferry system manager John Falvey told the ferry system advisory board earlier this month. “Angoon, basically the same thing.”
According to state documents, the Kake project is expected to cost up to $1 million and will involve the construction of a small, heated terminal building with bathrooms for passengers.
Construction will take place in the summer, with work completed by fall. The project has gone out to bid, and contractors’ offerings will be opened on Dec. 6.
A similar project will take place in Angoon next summer, but because of terrain problems, the terminal is expected to cost as much as $2 million, twice Kake’s cost.
The project has not gone out to bid yet, but as in Kake, construction is expected to take place in the summer.
In Ketchikan, DOT is planning a $2.5 million to $5 million effort to replace mooring dolphins and passenger bridges at the ferry terminal. The project is out to bid through Dec. 3, with work to be done during the summer.
In Skagway, where the ferry terminal’s boarding float sank in the spring, a replacement is expected to go out for bid in March 2016.
Haines and Gustavus are in line for the biggest shoreside ferry projects in Southeast, but construction on those efforts is not scheduled to begin before 2017.
Gustavus is being considered for a dock project to repair a failed ferry facility.
In Haines, the state is planning a $20 million project to replace the existing ferry dock with one that allows ferries to be end-loaded. That process would speed boarding and exiting once the new Alaska-class ferries begin service in 2018.
According to state documents, funding for all significant Marine Highway terminal improvements is coming from the Federal Highway Administration.
