Federal transportation funds are pouring in to the Alaska Marine Highway System. This saves the state money right now. However, Alaska’s ferry board is looking into the future, and is working to develop a 20-year strategy. The plan includes three new ferries within the next four years.
“The goal of this plan is to help provide us with direction, you know when it comes to operational and capital investments through to 2045.” stated Craig Tornga Alaska’s marine director.
He was addressing the state’s board of directors that make recommendations to the state at an extended meeting on July 14. The plan aims for a standardization of the vehicles as well as terminals to increase efficiency.
State officials are working with the marine engineers from Elliot Bay Design Group out of Seattle. The initial phase of the proposed plan will be presented to lawmakers of the Alaska Legislature in August.
The long-range plan outlines a number of adjustments that are required before ferry service is as reliable again.
The Alaska marine highway links 33 communities along the coast. However, funding and services have been declining steadily over the last 10 years.
The Ferry Board members have been discussing improvements to this system ever since it was established through the Legislature and began meetings two years back. In their last meeting the board members, including Wanetta Ayers highlighted the importance of marine highways.
“I’ve been to various community gatherings and heard over many times from people on how important the ferry service is when it comes to their medical transportation,” Ayers said. “That most people can’t take a plane to leave their homes to go to the highest level of medical treatment.”
However, passengers won’t likely experience improved services as long as more ferry employees are employed and the fleet that is aging is upgraded. Staff problems, especially licensed crew are still an issue. AMHS has only hired 12 new workers last year and has lost 11.
The plan aims to maintain eight vessels that will serve 35 ports over 3 years and one vessel that is in maintenance. But only six ferries are in operation this summer. There are no reserve ferry services available for emergencies or maintenance requirements that are not planned. It will create issues with reliability until the size of the fleet increases, the plan says. This is expected to happen within the coming years. Three new ferries will join the fleet before 2027’s end. One of the three is a hybrid one of which will be electric.
Two new ferries are set to replace two 60 years old ferries: The ocean class Tustumena along with the Mainliner Matanuska. It’s called the Tustumena Replacement, TRV as it’s referred to is in the process of being built and is expected to cost $250 million. It will be Alaska’s first hybrid ferry powered by a diesel battery. Similar to the Tustumena it will also provide services to communities that are located in Kodiak, South Central, and Southwest Alaska.
With federal funding an all-electric ferry is expected to replace the old dayboat Lituya that is the smallest ferry in the state operating from Ketchikan as well as Metlakatla. The Lituya could be used on a limited run in the future, which is still to be determined.
When the new ferry ships are completed after which the Tazlina is set to be back in service when crew quarters are built. The ferry, as well as its sister vessel the Hubbard was constructed just five years ago at Ketchikan for 60 million dollars. The ferry didn’t have cabins for crew, thus limiting their use to day-trips of a few hours. After the construction was completed was completed, it was decided the crew’s quarters would be necessary. The Hubbard purchased the quarters for $15 million, and began serving Lynn Canal users Lynn Canal in May.
The state’s plans call to have the Tazlina to return to service by the end of next year.
The next steps of the long-range plan examine the demand and demographics for all marine highway communities, and solicit input from the people who are involved. The 20-year plan is scheduled to be completed by the end of summer. A board member Norm Carson urged engineers to collect information from the local population. He’s been a Pelican at Chichagof Island since 1967 and states that the population changes.
“The community at a minimum increases in size between April and the month of October” Carson said. Carson. “So the information you get in a census is not always the most accurate. contact me or the mayor or someone else to get more details.”
Juliette Lehman with the engineering firm informed the board that obtaining local feedback is a part to the procedure. They’ll be in touch with key stakeholders to ensure that the information contained in the plan is consistent with the reality.
“To solicit feedback from members of the community to make sure that the database contains data that is reliable and current,” Lehman said. “Like you suggested, certain sources don’t contain the information that a person from the community could have direct experience with.”
Federal funds are anticipated to continue flowing into the state’s marine highways via the Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act. Alaska’s state Alaska only spent $7.5 million operating ferry services in the year prior. This is more than $100 million less than the amount it spent in 2015, when it set aside $120 million for ferry operations. This is since the government has been paying for transportation across the nation, including $97 million for Alaska ferry companies last year.
Federal funds for ferry operations are likely to continue coming into Alaska through the Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act. A total of $1 billion has been allotted to ferry projects across the United States with routes that are more than 50 miles. This puts Alaska in a position to benefit from a significant portion of these funds.
