Seward develops marine infrastructure

  • By ELWOOD BREHMER
  • Saturday, May 16, 2015 9:20pm
  • News

The City of Seward hopes to break ground on its new harbor and breakwater in October, provided it can get a contractor in time.

The in-water infrastructure will be the backbone of the Seward Marine Industrial Center that will someday take advantage of several hundred acres of city-owned uplands, combined with the ice-free harbor, to create a sort of marine industrial park, city Community Development Director Ron Long said.

“Nobody wants to invest in breakwaters and lighthouses; they don’t generate any revenue,” Long said. “But when they’re done and then there’s a facility, people are interested in leasing lands in the uplands — do I need a warehouse here or a shop or a net mending shed or a refrigeration facility or what?”

To make sure the city makes adequate and proper investments in its uplands to attract industry, Seward has contracted with the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority to do a business case scenario and development plan with financing options, he said.

Along with the city’s investment, Vigor Industrial is planning to spend about $1 million to upgrade the operational efficiency of its adjacent shipyard, Vigor Business Development Director Doug Ward said.

Portland, Ore.-based Vigor purchased the shipyard last year. Vigor also operates the shipyard in Ketchikan that is owned by AIDEA.

Ward, also the chair of the Alaska Workforce Investment Board, and a staple in Alaska’s maritime industry, said the development in Seward should be one of many smaller projects that are needed across the state to capture the work that is available and keep it in Alaska.

“I don’t want to say never, but it’s going to be a long, long time before we have the marine industrial capacity to support more than just a fraction of what’s going to be available,” he said in an interview.

With the aging Bering Sea fishing fleet needing replacement soon and offshore oil and gas activity starting to take hold, Ward said those are just two examples of the larger volume of work Alaska can’t capture right now.

He likened what the state needs to Louisiana’s Port Fourchon, which bills itself as “the Gulf’s energy connection.”

Port Fourchon is a 1,200-acre mega port — airport included — that provides facilities for every aspect of the offshore oil industry in the Gulf of Mexico. The State of Louisiana is currently working to double the size of the port.

“Our Port Fourchon will be distributed over a thousand miles and it won’t serve all of the demand that’s out there,” Ward said. “So our trick as a state and as communities is to try and take out personal agendas that want it all and try and focus those market segments that we’re best able to accommodate and manage.”

More in News

Montessori materials sit on shelves in a classroom at Soldotna Montessori Charter School on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022 in Soldotna, Alaska. (Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion)
Education debate draws state attention to peninsula charter schools

Dunleavy would like to see a shift of authority over charter school approvals from local school districts to the state

The Nikiski Senior Center stands under sunlight in Nikiski, Alaska, on Thursday, March 14, 2024. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Support available for community caregivers

Nikiski Senior Center hosts relaunched Kenai Peninsula Family Caregiver Support Program

Flags flank the entrance to Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s office on Thursday, March 14, 2024, in Juneau, Alaska. (Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion)
Dunleavy vetoes bipartisan education bill

Senate Bill 140 passed the House by a vote of 38-2 and the Senate by a vote of 18-1 last month

The Alaska State Capitol on Friday, March 1, 2024, in Juneau, Alaska. (Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion)
House passes bill altering wording of sex crimes against children

The bill is sponsored by Rep. Sarah Vance, R-Homer

Ben Meyer and Brandon Drzazgowski present to the Soldotna and Kenai Chambers of Commerce at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex in Soldotna, Alaska, on Wednesday, March 13, 2024. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Kenai Watershed Forum gives update on streambank restoration

The watershed forum and other organizations are working to repair habitat and mitigate erosion

The entrance to the Kenai Police Department, as seen in Kenai, Alaska, on April 1, 2020. (Photo by Brian Mazurek/Peninsula Clarion)
Kenai resident arrested on charges of arson

Kenai Police and Kenai Fire Department responded to a structure fire near Mountain View Elementary

Sen. Jesse Bjorkman, R-Nikiski, speaks in opposition to an executive order that would abolish the Board of Certified Direct-Entry Midwives during a joint legislative session on Tuesday, March 12, 2024 in Juneau, Alaska. (Ashlyn O'Hara/Peninsula Clarion)
Legislature kills most of Dunleavy’s executive orders in rare joint session

All the proposed orders would have shuffled or eliminated the responsibilities of various state boards

Nikiski Middle/High School student Maggie Grenier testifies in favor of a base student allocation increase before the Alaska Senate Education Committee on Monday, Feb. 12, 2024, in Juneau, Alaska. (Screenshot)
Students report mixed responses from lawmakers in education discussions

Delegates from the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District lobbied the Alaska Legislature for more state funding and other education priorities

A child waves from the back of a truck as the 32nd annual Sweeney’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade proceeds down Fireweed Street in Soldotna, Alaska on Friday, March 17, 2023. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
St. Patrick’s Day parade set for Sunday

The annual Sweeney’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade, hosted by the Soldotna Chamber of Commerce, kicks off at 2 p.m.

Most Read