Parallel pieces of legislation prioritizing the ongoing expansion of the Port of Nome cleared committees in the U.S. House and Senate this week.
Nome’s Port Director, Joy Baker, said the port’s inclusion in the House and Senate versions of the Waterways Resource Development Act bill brings a big boost to the overdue and over budget project.
“This is the delegation in Congress saying, ‘We will not reduce the scope of this project because of its overall overarching purpose for the nation,” she said.
In a press release, Nome Mayor Kenny Hughes thanked Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan for championing the Nome port project.
“Construction is underway this summer, and the provisions he has secured in the 2026 WRDA bill in today’s mark-up will help to ensure that this vital infrastructure project is one step closer to supporting national security missions and the region’s economy,” Hughes said.
Nome’s port project is one in a long list of orders in the bills. They prioritize infrastructure projects overseen by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Once complete, the expanded port in Nome would become the country’s northernmost deep draft port. Its strategic position near the Bering Strait is drawing commercial and military interest.
Sullivan welcomed the inclusion of the Nome project at a hearing Wednesday.
“We are keeping our foot on the gas in this bill to build America's very first Arctic deep water port in Nome,” Sullivan said.
The first phase of the project was already split in two after failing to receive bids within budget. The Corps watered down the project’s first phase and sent out a modified Phase 1A for bids last summer. Kiewit Corporation from Nebraska was eventually awarded a contract worth nearly $400 million.
Phase 1A will extend the port’s causeway and add about 600 feet of dock space. Phase 1B will add another 1,800 feet of dock space, but that’s on hold for now.
Instead, the Corps is finishing design work on Phase 2. Baker said in a report this week that Phase 2 could go out to bid this fall. Phase 2 will dredge out the harbor, making room for larger ships to pull into port. Currently, large cruise ships and some military vessels anchor offshore and lighter in on small boats.
The bills also seek to designate the west coast of Alaska as a “federal priority area” for coastal erosion projects following last fall’s ex-typhoon Halong.
“We are focusing the Corps' attention on building resilience along Western Alaska's coasts, which has faced increasingly severe storms and erosion over the last several years,” Sullivan said.
The American Society of Civil Engineers expects one of the bills to pass into law by the end of the year.
