Skagway rockslide work will not reopen Railroad Dock to trains, engineers say

The engineers designing Skagway's Rockslide Mitigation Project told the borough in a draft memo dated Nov. 4 that removing the unstable rock above the Railroad Dock will not bring back trains or pedestrians. The memo also says relying on helicopters alone, instead of building an overland access road, would likely add an estimated $35 million to $40 million and at least a year.

The project aims to excavate unstable rock at the top of the North Slide to prevent a catastrophic failure and locally generated tsunamis at the Port of Skagway. The memo says removing most of Rock Block 3 and the fractured rock behind it ends the catastrophic failure hazard and lets cruise ships pull farther forward to use the dock's full length.

Kyle Brennan, a Shannon & Wilson vice president, wrote to Borough Manager Emily Deach that a rockfall hazard from the remaining rock and an active chute "prevents the return of the Railroad Dock to its historic use, including train and pedestrian access." Restoring those uses would take separate projects.

Granite Construction, the project's construction manager and general contractor, estimates helicopter-only access at about $35 million to $40 million, compared with about $8 million to $11 million for the overland road. Both figures cover access only, not the rock work. The helicopter estimate leaves out weather delays, which the memo says could stretch the job from two or three construction seasons to three or four or more.

The overland route follows an existing access road, then part of the Lower Dewey Lake Trail. Trail sections now 7 to 9 feet wide would be widened to 10 feet and the last stretch to the helicopter landing area built as mostly new road along the ridge. None of it would be removed afterward. The memo's exhibits list 4.4 acres of disturbance. Engineers expect shrubs to return in two to five years and tree canopy in 20 to 30.

The Assembly chose this approach June 4, voting 6-0 for Alternative Two with north road access. A day earlier, at an open house, residents asked about forest damage along the trail and who would pay if the privately owned dock were damaged.

On Oct. 1 the Assembly adopted a resolution 6-0 after Phase 2 construction costs rose to about $65.8 million. The borough committed up to about $6 million as a match for a federal PROTECT grant that would cut the Port Fund share from about $38 million to $14 million. The 90% design is due in spring 2027, and the memo says any change in the alternative or access method would likely delay it.

The design team presented the memo at a Nov. 9 work session. The clerk's office combined residents' written questions into 24, including whether moving the dock out of the hazard area had been studied and what authority in the borough's 2004 Dewey Lakes Recreation Area management plan allows the route.

Resident Andrew Cremata wrote Nov. 7 that building a road in the recreation area "is illegal." Answering the authority question, one official said, "It's a trail," and added, "I don't know that I can answer what authority we have."

No motion was made. Assemblymember Charity Pomeroy said that if community sentiment is strong enough to want a vote, she would be open to looking at what that would look like.