With thousands of visitors expected to head for the historic gold rush city of Skagway, Alaska during 2024, a new floating cruise ship dock debuted at the city’s port in late June.
The 500-by-50-foot dock, located where ore shipments at the Port of Skagway were formerly loaded, accepted its first cruise ship of the season, the Konningsdam, on May 14, in advance of an official ribbon cutting ceremony on June 27, Municipality of Skagway Port Director Cody Jennings said.
“This is a dedicated cruise ship dock,” Jennings said. “We expect to see 137 cruise ship calls, with an estimated 415,000 passengers in 2024. The dock can accommodate the largest class cruise ships calling on Alaska: Quantum of the Seas and Norwegian Encore.”
The project, funded through a voter approved $65 million revenue bond and port fees, was designed by KPFF construction engineers and built by Pacific Pile and Marine of Seattle.
The cruise dock is the first of several upgrades the city is looking to make at the port, Jennings said.
The city went through a port master plan process starting several years ago, with community input indicating that the docks should continue to be multi-use, in the event of ore shipments in the future from mines in the Yukon Territory, she said.
Skagway, along the popular cruise route in the Inside Passage, was founded in 1897. It is one of Alaska’s most popular visitor attractions, with its gold rush era buildings preserved as part of the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park.