CHILKAT VALLEY NEWS ARCHIVES

This excerpt is from one of the dozens of CVN articles regarding ore transfer over the Lutak Dock going back more than a decade.

The second group mentioned in this 2012 CVN article was composed of "trans-boundary private and government entities with a mutual interest in the Port of Haines and its strategic assets and potential beneficial uses."

Also in 2012, the Comprehensive Plan identified the need to ensure that the Haines Highway and its bridges are able to handle ore transport. Since then, the $100 million highway project and $8 million "Palmer Project bridge" over the Klehini River have been funded and (mostly) completed.

Haines Borough 2025

Comprehensive Plan

At the Haines Port Development Council's second summit, DOT planner

Hughes told the panel that with respect to mining in Haines, his agency had identified more than $100 million in improvement needs. Those include rebuilding of the Haines Highway...(including replacement of Wells Bridge), [and] resurfacing 3.5 Mile to Sixth Avenue.

Hughes also mentioned replacement of the Klehini River bridge (Steel Bridge), an $8.3 million project that he called the “Palmer Project bridge. ” The new bridge will be designed next summer. Construction of the bridge would occur in 2016-17, he said.

— Chilkat Valley News

In 2016, the Haines Borough began developing plans for the Lutak Dock. The borough commissioned R&M Consultants to do a study and come up with new dock designs, all of which would accommodate Handymax ships.

Note: R&M is currently the Borough's Owner Advisor for the Lutak Dock Replacement Project (and wrote the Borough's 2021 RAISE grant.)

This is R&M's 2016 design 1B showing a Handymax as well as a cargo barge.

Though they have more than enough capacity to supply local needs, local cargo barges are 1/2 the size of Handymax ships with a much smaller capacity.

R&M's report contained a Mine Export Memo which outlined how the borough could export the Palmer Project's ore at the 'Lutak Ore Terminal.' Many of the design features were modeled on Skagway's ore terminal. Constantine was a stakeholder at the meetings.

NOTE: R&M's memo doesn't review the containerized bulk handling system which doesn't require a concentrate storage building or a conveyor. (This technology is discussed on page 45.)

MARCH 2, 2017

"AML is very familiar with the cost to build and maintain a marine facility... the proposed cost to rebuild this facility could never be recovered by wharfage charges assessed for cargo that moves over the facility...we suggest that we do some brainstorming for the project with a greatly reduced scope

— Letter from Alaska Marine Lines, Appendix D

AML was the one stakeholder voice that suggested that the Borough might not ever pay off the facility with user fees and that it should consider a smaller dock.

This is the phased design that emerged in 2021. This is the design submitted with the borough's RAISE grant application.

The phased design involved the demolition of the dock face and replacement of the vertical dock face with an angled rock slope, catwalk, and mooring dolphins, as well as other features.

It, too, would accommodate Handymax ships.

This image is from the fourth phase of R&M's design from June of 2021 showing uplands uphill of the dock.