Federal transportation dollars are pouring into the Alaska Marine Highway System. It’s saving the state money now. But Alaska’s ferry board is looking far into the future and helping to draft a 20-year plan. It includes three new ferries in the next four years.
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“Crewing. That’s our biggest, biggest pain we have right now,” said Craig Tornga, Alaska Marine Highway System’s new director. “It’s just a daily challenge.” Tornga reported on the continued staffing challenge to the Alaska Marine Highway Operations Board at its meeting, July 14.
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UPDATE: Friday, June 23 —
“Vigor removed the leaky valve manifold and is fabricating a new one. They are on schedule for installation and testing on Monday, June 26. Divers inspected the bow thruster and no blockages or obstructions were located. The bow thruster issue required consulting its UK-based manufacturer, and was narrowed down to a sensor called a potentiometer. The sensor is functional, but due to loose clamps, it had rotated approximately 90 degrees, causing a fault. The sensor is being repositioned and they’ll test the bow thruster today.”
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Craig Tornga became the new head of the Alaska Marine Highway System this month. He is in charge of a fleet of nine ships and hundreds of ferry workers. And he says his number one priority is seeking reliability.
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“This is a good job. This is one of the best jobs I ever had,” said Earling Walli, regional director of the Inlandboatmen’s Union of the Pacific, the largest of Alaska’s ferry unions. “But you need to get paid and need guaranteed work. So, I think at this point, the Marine Highway can only go up. We hit rock bottom.”
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“To meet this requirement, the state is proposing to use an innovative federal aid highway tool that allows the state to use existing federal dollars to capture these new federal dollars,” said DOT Commissioner, Ryan Anderson.
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One of the first Alaska Marine Highway vessels could be reborn nearly 60 years later as a museum for the history of the state ferry system.
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DOT says four parties have expressed interest in the 450-passenger Malaspina. It’s the latest twist in the process initiated by the Dunleavy administration to dispose of a once iconic state ferry that’s been idle since 2019.
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