Deep Water Port Nome AK?

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AK's resource industry has been asking for Nome area port improvements for years. Several development projects in the area can now make further plans to move ahead, greatly aiding the AK tax base and jobs as the North Slope oil production winds down.

With no rail or interstate type road ties to the lower 48 in Canada, sea transport is essential.
 
Alaskan Sea-Duction said:
Wow this could mean cruise ships in Nome. This won't go over well with the locals.
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Isn't Nome about 2500 miles North of Vancouver ? If they can't go from US port to another US port, that would mean 3 or 4 sea days , a day in Nome and then 3 or 4 sea days to get back. I also don't think any cruise lines are expanding right now or in the near future.
 
sunchaser said:
AK's resource industry has been asking for Nome area port improvements for years. Several development projects in the area can now make further plans to move ahead, greatly aiding the AK tax base and jobs as the North Slope oil production winds down.
With no rail or interstate type road ties to the lower 48 in Canada, sea transport is essential.
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What resource industry (fishing?) are you referring to and development projects? At first read I thought this was another bridge to no where but Sen. Murkowski believes it of importance with undefined benefits. Possibly of strategic military importance? Now that would be a coveted duty assignment.
 
HTurner said:
Why? The locals don't want a flow of new money into the local economy? They don't like jobs?
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Many Alaska Native groups and Native Cooperations do not want projects that would affect thier Subsistence life style.
 
ASD.... don't worry $250,000,000 doesn't go far Look at the Port of Anchorage debacle. How much was spent on the Port McKenzie Bridge. Alaska project dollars are similar to boat bucks.
 
Reminds me a little bit of Wally Hickel's idea for an undersea fresh water pipeline to California. Or was it a bridge from Wales to Chukotka, with a pylon on Little Diomede?
 
Project Chariot also came to mind for some reason.

As for resource access, think mining - up river, offshore and generally around Nome.

But IMO it’s more strategic in nature, betting on opening up the race to extractive industry in the northwest passage as weather warms up there. I’m not expressing support mind you, but to many it’s smart.
 
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Looks like there is almost $1B going to various projects in AK. I'm sure there are some locals who don't want any advancements or improvements, but if AK congressional reps are fighting to get these funds, somebody in AK must want them.
 
Let see. A road out of Juneau to connect to rest of Canada and USA
 
Benthic2 said:
Alaskaflyer said:
Project Chariot also came to mind for some reason...../QUOTE]


From Wikipedia:

The project originated as part of Operation Plowshare, a research project to find peaceful uses for nuclear explosives.

WOW!!!!
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Wow is right! I never heard about it but just read it. Detonate 5 underground nuclear devices to create a harbor! That would be someting to see (from my TV on the East Coast).
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Ask the people who used to live on Bikini Atoll how that worked out for them.
 
So out of curiosity, I looked at the port of Nome, and what this article says.


First, it identifies Nome as an EXISTING Deepwater port. So the funds are NOT to create a Deepwater port where one doesn't currently exist. Exactly what is planned for the money is unknown.


Then I started wondering just what a Deepwater port is, and it actually has NOTHING to do with water depth. So any notion of a Deepwater port being a magnet for cruise ships is silly.


So what is a Deepwater port? I too assumed it has something to do with a minimum depth for large ships. Nope. It's a dock or pier used for offloading oil and/or natural gas. That's it. There are no depth stipulations. The port of Nome, BTW, has a 16' outer channel, and 9' inner channel. But it's a Deepwater port today.


https://www.maritime.dot.gov/ports/...icensing/frequently-asked-questions#Question1
 
Alaskan Sea-Duction said:
Many Alaska Native groups and Native Cooperations do not want projects that would affect thier Subsistence life style.
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Certainly true of many villages. A typical arrival at Sleetmute or Quinhagak involves a guy with an ill-concealed firearm asking "How soon will you be departing" (I speak from experience.)



Nome, on the other hand is rather cosmopolitan. Think of the crowd lining Main Street for the Iditarod finish.
 
The USCGC Healy’s draft is 29’ 3”. A Zumwalt class destroyer’s draft is 27.5 feet. The existing deep water port will likely be made deeper.
 
kthoennes said:
Reminds me a little bit of Wally Hickel's idea for an undersea fresh water pipeline to California.
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I think Wally wanted to tow icebergs with tug boats. But history provides no shortage of examples:


Dairy farms on Point McKenzie
Port McKenzie
Grain elevators in Valdez
Road to Cordova
Susitna dam
Knik Arm bridge
Fire Island Airport

ad nauseum:facepalm:
 
AlaskaProf said:
Judge for yourself.
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The charts show 21' where those larger ships are docked in the outer harbor, and the channel controlling depth is 16', so in and out at higher tide if you draw the full 21' at the dock. Now the controlling depth is just a minimum for the channel, so it might be deeper in areas. Even a mile out of the harbor it's only 50'.
 
twistedtree said:
The charts show 21' where those larger ships are docked in the outer harbor, and the channel controlling depth is 16', so in and out at higher tide if you draw the full 21' at the dock. Now the controlling depth is just a minimum for the channel, so it might be deeper in areas. Even a mile out of the harbor it's only 50'.
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A large fraction of their traffic is barges on the beach.
 
Now that the NW passage is becoming ice free in the winter, I suspect this project will have significant military applications.
Of course all the environmentalist will jump up and down with their objections.

I vaguely remember Russia used a nuc explosion to build a lake resulting in a lake that it too radioactive to be of any use and the surrounding area is so radioactive that it cannot be used for anything.
 
I just hope the sluice what they dig/dredge out and put any gold back into Ft Knox. There has to be some there. I wonder who owns the mining claims.

Tom
 
A tangential historical note you may find interesting:

In Spring of 1929 my father was sent to study parasites of reindeer in a camp outside Nome. He was a research scientist with a new doctorate from Johns Hopkins at the time. He and my mother (then pregnant) traveled via the Alaska Railroad to the Yukon river, then 1000 miles in an outboard-powered open boat to as close as they could get to Nome. The rest of the trip had to be overland, but I don't know the exact means.

After he finished his work, they returned to Seattle via the the steamship VICTORIA, which ran regularly from Nome for many years. They caught the last voyage before everything iced over that year and promptly moved back to Texas. Sort of a "Cremation of Sam McGee" story.

So VICTORIA, operated by the Alaska Steamship Company, fit into the harbor at Nome easily. I cannot find details of the ship but it was not just a barge and must have carried a sizable number of passengers in sleeping cabins.

More here: Alaska Steamship Co. - The Alaska Line
 
The Victoria was famous PNW steamship, originally a Atlantic Cunard Liner built about 1870 or so. It was sold to the Canadian Pacific RR Co and did Pacific crossings. It was later acquired by the Alaska Steamship Co and became an Alaska liner about 1908. Her long time captain was Johnny "Dynamite" O'Brien, famous for his own PNW adventures. Both are worth reading about.
The ship was cut down to a barge in the early 1950s.
During the Alaska gold rush, barges ferried people and supplies ashore in Nome. I don't think there ever was an offshore pier because of the ice. The breakwater is from the 1920s and the harbor not deep enough for ships.
 
2020 Census shows less than 4K people. Travel about in the street view mode of Google Earth and you find all structures pretty much single story and pre-fab looking. Everybody probably related to everybody else. The artist's concept of a cruise ship there is thus rendered rather laughable especially when considering the at sea dead time coming and going for the moth or two it could even happen. Nothing there for cruise ships. Can't say what the freight industry might get out of the larger accommodations, but weather will play a big part. Hit or miss? A probable miss except for the marine construction buddies of the congressional delegation.
 
Alaskaflyer said:
The USCGC Healy’s draft is 29’ 3”. A Zumwalt class destroyer’s draft is 27.5 feet. The existing deep water port will likely be made deeper.
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:iagree:


Improvements would make it a better port for Coast Guard and Navy ships to use.

Might also see some cruise ships. The entire cruise industry isn't 7-day cruise on Monster ships like you might see in Florida.

Jim
 
rgano said:
A probable miss except for the marine construction buddies of the congressional delegation.
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We have a winner!:rofl:



See my list of Alaska "projects" above--not a single one with an economic rationale. The ultimate was "The Bridge to Nowhere" which terminated on an uninhibited island belonging to the Governor's wife. (mother of the current Senior Senator.)
 
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