Alaska House Bill 65 would allow the Alaska Railroad Corporation to issue more revenue bonds to finance the replacement of the Alaska Railroad Corporation’s passenger dock and related terminal facility in Seward.
It sailed through the House Finance Committee and will be on the House floor for consideration on Monday.
The bill’s primary sponsor is Rep. Louise Stutes of Kodiak, with bipartisan co-sponsors Rep. Alyse Galvin (U-Anchorage) and Reps. Mike Prax and Frank Tomaszewski, Republicans of North Pole and Fairbanks. HB 65 is essentially the same as one proposed by Gov. Mike Dunleavy, House Bill 67, which will be set aside in favor of the House’s own legislation.
The bonding limit of the Alaska Railroad Corporation is $60 million, due to legislation passed in 2022 that gave the railroad bonding authority. HB 65 would increase that to $135 million and allow the railroad to move ahead on refurbishing the terminus of the critical infrastructure.
The existing dock, built in 1965-66 after the Great Alaska Earthquake of 1964 had destroyed the dock and surrounding infrastructure, is now near the end of its useful lifespan. There has been significant corrosion to the pile foundations over the decades.
The proposed new dock and facility have been designed with specification for the anchor tenant, Royal Caribbean but the terminal building could be available for rent for community purposes as well. The Alaska Railroad has a proposal from a builder for the project for $137 million.
One aspect of the proposed 750-foot, two-berth floating dock is that it would accommodate the Quantum class of ships, which is the largest cruise ship size sailing in Alaska, and this enhancement will bring Seward into the same port capacity as those in Southeast Alaska.
Although the railroad requires legislative approval to bond, the State of Alaska would not be responsible for the debts of ARRC. The bonds would be secured by a port usage agreement and paid back entirely by dock revenues.
The bill passed out of House Finance Committee with all members voting in support, signaling it will pass the House quickly ad move to the Senate.
The railroad has big ambitions, hoping to have the entire project done in time for the 2026 cruise season.
Mr. Binkley’s dream project. A tourist pathway of gold right to his doorstep in Fairbanks. Must be nice to be on both the Alaska Railroad Board and be a newly appointed Trustee of the Permanent Fund. It’s better than being governor. Or Senator. .
He is also president of the Alaska cruise ship association. Pretty plumb operation. Ship to
rail to the bank. Tourism feels pretty good. Thanks Dunleavy, for making Binkley Alaska’s only billionaire. The ADN owes you at least ONE favorable editorial.
…..and the Alaska Railroad owes Binkley at least five or six more terms on the Board to complete the RR transfer into full ownership to the Binkleys. It’s good for state tourism.
Mr. Binkley’s dream project. A tourist pathway of gold right to his doorstep in Fairbanks. Must be nice to be on both the Alaska Railroad Board and be a newly appointed Trustee of the Permanent Fund. It’s better than being governor. Or Senator. .
it seems a large part of this project relies on a 45.7 million dollar grant from the EPA through the Biden Clean Ports Program. The city of Seward secured this in hopes of cutting emissions and enhancing the resilience of the local electric grid. So is this grant still happening? Maybe the Seward company knows. I would think the locals would be interested to know if they will be benefiting from a new large user on their electric grid.
That grant is part of the stash of cash that the Trump administration has vowed to take back. This is as bad an idea as the never used Airport railroad terminal in Anchorage. If private industry needs infrastructure, let private industry build it. The idiots in Juneau are trying to reinstitute the income tax to further impoverish the people out here WORKING for their money. They just need to stop BLOWING state money on BS projects.
How about we build things for us Alaskans to use instead of all our infrastructure being for tourists? Some of us actually live here and would like nice things that make our daily lives better too.
Who would pay for that? Cruislines pay for this project
This right here. Yesssss. Thank you for saying this.
Let’s not continue to fund and build multimillion dollar restrooms for the visiting summer tourists but then make them all totally unavailable and inaccessible to the general public the rest of the year.
The examples of this are endless.
Bringing outside revenue into the state makes your life better. It’s that simple.
How many years will the EPA study the effects before letting them build it??
Seward is already great. It doesn’t need this.
Does not the photo actually show the cruise ship dock on the north end of Seward, adjacent to the small boat harbor, instead of the Alaska Railroad passenger terminal (“train station”) at the south end of town?
Jeff,
The train station is next to the small boat harbor, in the picture above it is behind the cruise ships and to the right of the harbor.
So, Norwegian and a PRIVATE company secure PRIVATE funds to build a dock and facility in Whittier, but Alaskans forgo infrastructure improvements, like a railroad extension west, in order to invest in what should be a PRIVATE company investment in Seward.
Stack em’, Pack em’, turn em’, burn em’!
We need rail from point Mac to Houston first.
How does this not turn into a debacle like what happened with the Port of Anchorage?