Skagway has been awarded a $19.9 million dollar grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for rockslide mitigation above the White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad dock. Rockslides from the mountain beside the dock have disrupted the community’s last two cruise seasons.
“Success is always welcome,” Mayor Andrew Cremata said. “This is huge for Skagway, this is huge for the cruise industry.”
A year ago, the rockslides forced Cremata to declare a state of emergency, limit dockings, and forgo much tourism revenue.
Cremata says the municipality has spent $4 million this year on rockslide mitigation and monitoring. Crews strung nets across the hazardous zone, but that fix is temporary.
Cremata says the grant brings a more permanent solution in sight, but he says the project will be complex.
“It’s not just bringing down a rock,” he said. “One of the key parts of the project is protecting the infrastructure below the rock. There is a dock down there that we need to protect, there is our small boat harbor, there are fuel tanks, public restrooms, so hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure that need to be protected. So it’s a little bit more of a delicate job than simply blasting a rock.”
Delicate, and very costly. The nearly $20 million grant will cover three quarters of the cost. Cremata says the municipality is working to find the rest.
The FEMA website indicates that the money will go toward everything from rock excavation and hauling to traffic control and environmental protection.
Skagway Borough Manager Brad Ryan gives a more detailed description.
“The basis of that work is to pin back where the mountains is unraveling behind the primary slide there, so that’s drilling some long holes up there, and putting some long sections of rebar in there, grout and pin it back so it’s stabilized,” he said. “And then we start removing rock that’s up there that’s going to slide, and that’s about 30,000 yards of material. And then putting attenuation measures that would prevent minor rockslides from coming down and being a problem.”
Ryan says the aim is to allow foot traffic on the dock again, instead of the costly shuttling of crowds by bus and boats to avoid the danger zone.
Cremata says obtaining the grant is the reward of a substantial lobbying effort the municipality engaged in. Back in October, he and the town’s lobbyist took a trip to Washington, D.C.
“I remember going to Sen. Sullivan’s office, and talking to his staff, and showing them a video, and they thought it was just one rock slide. They didn’t realize that this had been an ongoing issue last year and had threatened life, limb and property,” he said. “So familiarizing them with the magnitude of this issue and what it was going to take to solve it was very important.”
Cremata says the cruise ship industry lobbied as well. He says there are a few more hoops to jump through, but that the grant has essentially been awarded.
