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Rockslide work alone won't reopen Skagway's Railroad Dock to trains or pedestrians
The project to remove unstable rock above Skagway's Railroad Dock won't by itself bring back the trains or the foot traffic that once used the dock, the engineers designing it told the borough in a draft memo dated Nov. 4.
The privately owned dock holds two of Skagway's four cruise ship berths and typically serves about 535,000 passengers and 225,000 crew members a year, according to the borough. Several rockslides hit the slope above it in the fall of 2022, and state and local officials declared a disaster. Access to the pier is restricted, the borough says, and passengers from ships there come ashore by tender or are bused off.
The project would use machinery and blasting to remove most of a large block the engineers call Rock Block 3, along with the fractured rock stacked behind it, and send the debris down existing rockfall chutes. The borough says the work is meant to prevent a catastrophic failure and locally generated tsunamis at the port. Once the block is gone, cruise ships could pull farther forward and use the dock's full length, the memo says.
But the danger of falling rock from what's left of the slope and from an active rockfall chute will remain. That hazard "prevents the return of the Railroad Dock to its historic use, including train and pedestrian access," wrote Kyle Brennan, a vice president at Shannon & Wilson, which is helping design the work. Fixing it would take separate projects. Of its rendering of the dock after the work, the memo says "there is functionally no difference from what is currently there right now."
The other big question is how crews would get up the mountain. The access route "continues to be one of the primary community concerns," the memo says.
The Assembly chose an approach with a road 6-0 in June. Under the current design, crews would use an existing access road, then part of the Lower Dewey Lake Trail, where sections now 7 to 9 feet wide would be widened to 10 feet and stream crossings replaced. The last quarter of the route, along a ridge to an existing helicopter landing area, would be mostly new road. None of the road or trail work would be removed afterward, though some staging and disposal areas would be restored. The engineers say the route would also help with future slope work and emergency response.
In all, about 4.4 acres would be disturbed. The engineers expect ground cover and shrubs to return in two to five years and full tree canopy in 20 to 30 years.
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About Skagway
Skagway is a borough and port town in Southeast Alaska at the northern end of the Inside Passage. It preserves Klondike Gold Rush history, including Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park and a historic district, and draws cruise ships as a major destination.
The Klondike Highway links Skagway north over White Pass to the Yukon, and a state ferry terminal connects it to other Southeast communities. Snow, avalanche danger and rockfall work close that highway at times, and repairs have shut the ferry terminal. Strong winds and flood watches are frequent, and the borough government makes recurring decisions on housing and land.
Weather and power link Skagway closely to Haines across Lynn Canal, and the two towns share advisories and an undersea power cable. Cruise ship tourism and its effect on the town connect Skagway to debates across Southeast Alaska.
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