Juneau's cruise dock electrification estimate reaches $111.5 million, four and a half times earlier budgets

Electrifying Juneau's two city-owned downtown cruise berths would cost about $111.5 million, roughly four and a half times the $24.9 million earlier city budgets carried, according to an estimate made a third of the way through the design, which H3 Engineering Solutions will present to the Docks and Harbors Board on Thursday, Sept. 24, at 5 p.m. in Assembly Chambers. Neither the Alaska Steamship dock nor the Cruise Terminal dock can plug a ship into the grid today.

The estimate rests on $73.3 million in materials and labor, a 20% contingency of $14.7 million, 10% to move crews and equipment in, environmental permitting, construction management, $4.8 million for the rest of the design and $3.7 million for project management. Labor and materials alone are nearly three times that older figure, which counted construction only. The largest single line item is $10.8 million for new pile-supported dock structure.

The design would tap Alaska Electric Light & Power's 69 kV transmission line above South Franklin Street and run a short overhead extension downhill to a new substation on the lower slopes of Mount Roberts. The site sits next to demolished historic fuel tanks where crews already completed remediation. Two transformers would deliver dual 6.6 kV and 11 kV power, with space reserved for a third to serve a future Huna Totem dock. Each berth would get a trench-mounted outlet carriage and a mobile cable-management crane.

Princess Cruises, AEL&P and the city completed the world's first cruise ship shore power facility at Franklin Dock in 2001. That program has produced about $9 million in credits on residents' power bills over 20 years. In 2024, the city granted AEL&P $1.8 million to contract H3 for design work through 2027. Neither the design package nor the agenda explains the increase or says who would pay, and a city official told an Assembly committee on Aug. 31 there would still be a funding gap.

A 2022 city electrification study found Juneau has surplus hydropower to serve docked ships roughly 25% of the time, a limit on how often the new infrastructure could be used. City documents report AEL&P has raised concerns about connecting and disconnecting each ship, system stability and impacts on ratepayers.

The briefing is a discussion item, not an action item. Public comment follows the presentation.