The borough’s continuing work on its downtown waterfront master plan is ramping up after the community’s nearly 50-year-old freight barge landing was shut down.
The assembly will hold a work session on the master plan at 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 13, at the Nolan Center.
The barge ramp, next to the City Dock, was closed down in mid-March after an engineering report detailed structural and safety concerns about the steel bridge and other components.
The closure has prompted the borough to accelerate its quest for a permanent solution.
The freight companies serving Wrangell on a weekly barge run — Alaska Marine Lines and Samson Tug and Barge — have moved to a temporary setup, using forklifts to offload and load container vans and other freight while the barge is tied to the old sawmill dock at The Marine Service Center.
“Right now, we’re trying to make The Marine Service Center work as best we can,” Borough Manager Mason Villarma said.
Building a new barge landing — regardless of the location — could take several years for permitting, design and construction, he said.
In addition to working on a master plan for developing the downtown waterfront, the assembly in February established a special six-member committee of borough officials “to review and oversee the transition of barge service operations to the (borough-owned) 6-Mile mill site property.”
In 2022, an engineering firm estimated building a new ramp and staging area at 6-Mile would cost about $18 million, and the price tag likely has escalated since then.
Moving the barge landing out the road would open up a large area of downtown waterfront for redevelopment, possibly including retail, a hotel and waterfront park.
An alternative to the 6-Mile site could be to fill a larger area between the Nolan Center and The Marine Service Center to create more land for a barge operation.
That would require an expensive installation of extensive sheet piles and fill to create usable land, Villarma explained at the April 22 assembly meeting. However, building a freight operation on the fill would crowd out other future uses for the property.
The chamber of commerce polled its members last month on the question of where they would prefer to see barge operations located: Downtown or 6-Mile.
More than 30% of the chamber’s 100-plus members responded to the online survey. Of those, 73% said they preferred to replace the barge ramp at its current location or build a new freight yard between the Nolan Center and Marine Service Center.
A minority supported relocation to 6-Mile, favoring the benefits of opening up the downtown acreage for tourism development, creating space for economic development opportunities and improving the appearance of the waterfront.
Supporters of keeping the barge landing downtown said they feared moving the operation out the road would lead to higher freight costs.
“Respondents expressed significant concern that a relocation would increase costs for Wrangell residents and businesses,” according to a summary of the survey prepared by Tracey Martin, the chamber’s executive director.
“The increased transportation distance would raise freight costs, with ripple effects on grocery prices, supplies and local services,” the summary reported. “A substantial number of comments noted the efficiency of current unloading operations in town.”
Chamber members opposed to the move to 6-Mile also cited worries about increased traffic on Zimovia Highway.
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