Whittier Tunnel to close Saturday for USS Ted Stevens commissioning; guests must ride bus or train

Whittier's only road connection will close for eight hours Saturday while the Navy commissions its newest destroyer, the USS Ted Stevens, in the Prince William Sound town.

The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities will close the Whittier Tunnel to traffic from 7 am to 3 pm on Oct. 3. The USS Ted Stevens Commissioning Committee says the tunnel will be closed to private cars for security, and everyone attending the noon ceremony has to get there by motorcoach or Alaska Railroad.

The railroad is already full, according to the committee, so buses are the only option left. Guests confirm their transportation on the ticket request form, and a ticket is required to attend.

On Saturday morning, guests check in at the Dena'ina Center in downtown Anchorage, entering through the east door. Buses leave between 8 and 9:30 am for the roughly 90-minute ride to Whittier, and guests come back the same way they went. Parking is free at two downtown EasyPark garages: the 6th Avenue garage at 700 W. Sixth Ave. and the 7th Avenue garage at 650 G St.

Expect airport-style screening at the cruise terminal in Whittier. The committee is asking guests to pack light and leave guns, knives and anything flammable at home, and it recommends small or clear bags to keep the lines moving.

The 2.5-mile Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel is named for the Army engineer who led its construction starting in 1941. It carried only trains until 2000, when the state rebuilt it so cars and trucks could take turns on its single lane. The state calls it the longest combined highway and railroad tunnel in North America.

Commissioning is the ceremony that makes a ship an active part of the Navy's fleet. Navy commissionings are rare in Alaska. The last one was the USS Anchorage, commissioned in Anchorage in 2013.

The Ted Stevens is a guided-missile destroyer and the third ship built in the newest version of the Navy's Arleigh Burke class. It was built by HII's Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi, and after the ceremony it will be based in Norfolk, Virginia, the Navy said. The ship is named for the late U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, a World War II Army Air Corps pilot who represented Alaska in the Senate from 1968 to 2009 and died in 2010. His widow, Catherine Stevens, and his daughters Susan Stevens Covich and Lily Stevens Becker are the ship's sponsors.

People who can't make the ceremony have other chances to see the ship. The committee is offering tours of the destroyer in Whittier on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday from 1:30 to 5 pm, with the last tour at 4:30 pm. Tours are limited and booked through the committee's website. On Wednesday from 4:30 to 8 pm, a "Meet the Sailors" party with a band, food trucks, games and a beer garden is planned at the west end of the Park Strip in Anchorage, between Ninth and 10th avenues.

Questions go to the committee at [email protected].