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.

September 2012

Haines Borough 2025

Comprehensive Plan

OCTOBER 9, 2014

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 include Handymax as a design vessel.

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

Design 1B

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.