The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ranks Dutch Harbor as the nation’s top port by volume. But, until recently, a shallow bar sat at the Iliuliuk Bay entrance, limiting access to the city’s bustling ports.
After about two months of digging, that bar is now gone, and vessels can pass more easily to some of the Aleutian Island’s docks, which serve hundreds of fishing vessels each year, and land upwards of 500 million pounds of seafood. It’s also home to one of the most productive ports for transshipment in the state, according to NOAA.
The City of Unalaska partnered with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to create a 600 by 600-foot, one-way channel in the bay to allow safer passage by deeper-drafting vessels. The Iliuliuk Bay project was estimated to cost nearly $35 million — about three-quarters of which was to be funded by the federal government. The city’s share, including maintenance costs, came in at just over $12 million. The project is more than a decade in the making and wrapped up ahead of schedule on Aug. 21.
Unalaska City Manager Bil Homka said he hopes the expansion project will continue to make the island a competitive port.
“We definitely want to be positioned for future growth, future changes in the shipping industry as the Northern Passage becomes more frequently used,” Homka said.
J.E. McAmis, a marine contractor based out of Chico, California, was contracted in July of last year to perform the dredging. Project Manager Darrell Jamieson and his team removed about 172,000 cubic yards of sediment from a section of the bay, increasing the depth of the channel by nearly 20 feet in some places.
Over the summer, a large excavator sat on top of a barge in the bay, scooping up thousands of yards of sand, dirt and rocks from the ocean floor, dropping them in a large underwater hole nearby.
The excavator has a 95-foot boom, which operators use to scoop up the rock and sediment. Next, they bring it to the surface and drop the sediment into what’s called a “dump scow,” a specialized barge with a split hull that’s often used to transport large amounts of material.
“The tugboat tows it to the disposal site, and they hit — it's all remote control — they hit the remote button, and it opens the scowl and disposes the material, and then they close it and bring it back,” Jamieson said.
After hundreds of trips back and forth, the depth of the channel now reaches about 58 feet at the entrance. And instead of waiting for tides to rise or dropping ballast to pass, large vessels can reach Unalaska’s ports more easily.
The city contracted J.E. McAmis for two other local dredging projects at the light cargo dock and the Unalaska Marine Center. Those projects were estimated to cost about $5.3 million — part of which was to be funded by the state — and also wrapped up in August.
The City of Unalaska hosted a commemoration for the completion of the Iliuliuk Bay dredging project on Tuesday at the Unalaska Public Library. Various officials spoke and Unalaska Mayor Vince Tutiakoff Sr. joined Jamieson and Army Corps representatives in a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
