Ketchikan port director says Berth 3 dolphin plan stands despite crab fishermen's letter

Ketchikan Port and Harbors Director Wayne Phillips told the city's Port & Harbors Advisory Board on Tuesday that a planned mooring dolphin at Berth 3 is already designed and has gone out to bid, despite a letter of concern from Bering Sea crab fishermen aboard the Aleutian Ballad, a crab boat that ties up there. He also said "we don't have any plans right away" and that no contract has been awarded.

"The project design has already been done. It's gone out to bid," Phillips said. He described the dolphin as a safety upgrade that would add lashing points for larger cruise ships and said the City Council had already approved it. He said the fishermen's letter went to the city manager's office.

Phillips called the area a small boat harbor with open moorage, where "nobody has a firm fixed place there." He said one of the Aleutian Ballad's owners once looked at the plans and had no issue with them.

The idea has been around for years. A 2020 proposal to the city from Global Ports Holding placed a new dolphin about 130 feet west of the berth's current westernmost dolphin, as PND Engineers had recommended in 2018. The city's 2022–2026 capital improvement program listed additional Berth III mooring dolphins with design and permitting complete and funding still pending.

Board members who operate large vessels asked about clearance. One said he had not seen the plans since around 2020 and could not tell from them how wide the gap would be with ships moored at both Berth 3 and Berth 4. His company now runs a vessel about 25 feet wide and more than 100 feet long.

Another member said he objected when the design was first discussed. "I think for larger vessels it is going to be a more of a challenge getting in there," he said. He asked that berth assignments "keep that opening as wide as possible."

Phillips said he would get drawings from PND Engineers, the design firm, to every board member. He said he would also talk with the dispatcher who sets the cruise schedule about ways to reduce the problem.

The project has already hit a cost problem. Phillips's June memo to the council says the only bid, opened Dec. 17, 2025, came in at about $20.4 million, twice the engineers' estimate, and "The project was not awarded due to cost." Talks with that bidder failed, and another contractor said it could not bid. PND Engineers advised waiting for the marine construction market to slow. At the Nov. 5 City Council meeting, the council heard that the work, larger dolphins and bollards, was expected to cost about $9 million.

The board took no vote on the letter or the project.