Spur demolition begins for Nome's planned Arctic deep-draft port

Kiewit crews have begun removing a spur at the Port of Nome, the first demolition tied to a multiyear expansion intended to create the nation's first Arctic deep-draft port.

Crews are removing armor stone and stockpiling it on the beach before causeway construction begins next year. Port Director and Project Manager Joy Baker told the Nome Port Commission that city staff and Kiewit have been meeting at the site about traffic control, truck access and daily haul plans.

The work is part of Phase 1A, a $399.4 million contract the Army Corps of Engineers awarded Kiewit Infrastructure West in August 2025. That phase will extend the west causeway by 1,200 feet and add about 600 feet of new dock face. The city's current project schedule says no other in-water construction is expected until spring 2027, when the contractor plans to open the causeway's bullnose and begin building the breakwater extension. Completion is projected in 2029.

Phase 1A does not by itself create the planned 40-foot harbor. Phase 2 is a separate dredging project whose design is complete and is expected to go to bid. The Corps says the full modification will add a basin dredged to minus 40 feet. Nome's existing outer basin is about minus 22 feet and constrains vessels drawing more than roughly 18 feet.

Nome says the port serves as a supply hub for more than 60 communities across western and northern Alaska. The immediate operational test will come when Alaska Marine Lines' final freight barge of the season arrives between Sept. 23 and 26. Baker said that will be the hardest test yet of sharing the active port with construction.