$410M Federal Grants for Ferry System Upgrades
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More than $410 million in federal grants will support the Alaska Marine Highway System (AMHS) for another year, including investments in infrastructure for Southeast towns served by state ferries.
The Federal Transit Administration announced on August 17 that it would release funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, which the Trump administration had been withholding.
New LeConte, Juneau Terminal
The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities submitted six winning applications:
- $161.2 million for AMHS operations and for maintenance guided by the ferry system’s 2045 Long Range Plan.
- $153.4 million for design and construction of a replacement of MV LeConte, which has served the route between Juneau and Sitka since 1974.
- $33.4 million to modernize the Kake ferry terminal to accommodate more of the AMHS fleet and larger vessels.
- $20.6 million to expand the Saxman Seaport, improving capacity, freight movements, and connections among Ketchikan/Saxman, Metlakatla, and Prince of Wales Island.
- $37.6 million to continue development of the Cascade Point Ferry Terminal, a facility proposed north of Juneau to shorten the ferry connection to Haines and Skagway by roughly one-third.
- $4 million federal funding for customer service and operations modernization, including implementing modern reservations and improving AMHS operating efficiency.
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AMHS also receives $304,476 in federal funds for “operating assistance.” AMHS has supplemented its operations and maintenance budget with federal funds in recent years. This batch of funding was delayed from last year, and by February the budget was running about $78 million short.
“Until you have it, you don’t have it,” noted Senator Lisa Murkowski at a press conference announcing the grants. “And that’s where we were sitting last year, right? That’s why there was a great deal of anxiety about whether or not we would be able to count on the grants coming forward at all.”
Murkowski is credited with establishing the Ferry Service for Rural Communities Program. “Growing up in Southeast Alaska, I know our waterways connect us to our neighbors. When we have a thriving ferry system, our coastal communities can thrive,” Murkowski says. “With this funding, we are able to deliver on the promise to recapitalize our fleet so that AMHS remains a reliable, sustainable service that Alaskans can count on for decades to come.”
The latest distribution of rural ferry grants totals $665 million dollars across fourteen states and the US Virgin Islands, with Alaska receiving close to two-thirds of that funding.
Murkowski says, “This federal investment of more than $410 million is a major victory for Alaska and will help realize the vision I had as a lead author of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Throughout the lengthy negotiations, I made it clear that our ferries are essential infrastructure and deserve inclusion in this generational investment.”
Grants awarded in recent years include $106.4 million to construct a replacement for MV Tustumena, among hundreds of millions of dollars of infrastructure upgrades.
In a separate transportation grant last week, the Federal Railroad Administration awarded $28.8 million to the Alaska Railroad to rehabilitate the Hurricane Gulch Bridge, its longest and tallest. The state-owned corporation is adding $7.2 million of its own financing toward the $36 million project, which is meant to raise the crossing speed from the current limit of 10 mph to 25 mph, and it would increase the weight limit to a higher standard.
