Building the Arctic Port of the Future
At Alaska’s remote Port of Nome, limited harbor depth has long restricted access for large vessels—from icebreakers to fuel tankers—forcing costly and risky offshore transfers. Now, plans to transform Nome into a deep-water Arctic port are moving forward with advanced maritime simulations that model vessel movements, weather, and currents before construction begins. By combining real-world pilot expertise with engineering analysis, the effort aims to design a harbor capable of safely supporting larger ships and expanding critical infrastructure in the Arctic.
Transcript
00:00:11 Port of Gnome is only able to accommodate the small cutters and buoy tenders. We only have a 22 ft draft in our existing outer harbor and three 200 ft docks. So we are not able to accommodate the national security cutters, the polar security cutters, the large petroleum tankers, everything you can think of. They have the lighter is very time consuming, costly and not as
00:00:36 safe. When you're transferring that much fuel for the region on water versus being able to tie to a secure dock, the risks are present. So that is that is a complication that we are trying to resolve with the construction of this project and with the design we have and the depth we will obtain these tankers the ice breakers they will all be able to come into the dock so that will solve
00:01:02 that
>> and so by reputation you know they they knew that we could provide the simulation that they needed for their navigation project and so they reached out to us and said hey we we need to take a look at Gnome because we want to improve it and turn it into a deep water port and we've got alternatives to look at. And so 6 years ago, we were here
00:01:19 doing trying to screen some of those alternatives down. And based on the feasibility testing of those in the simulator, they were able to come up with the two alternatives that we're testing this week. And so, you know, we'd already worked with Alaska Marine pilots on previous projects like Dutch Harbor, which just got built, by the way.
00:01:35
>> It's obviously a very complicated video game, per se. And it's interesting that you can determine what elements they're going to encounter in real time operation of the vessel when you're running the simulators. The Alaska District guys that are with us, their team, they are very versed in the project and very uh detailoriented of exactly what's been designed and how
00:02:02 that's going to accommodate the vessels. And then I contribute with what is real world for the vessels coming into the port and the problems they're seeing.
>> The simulations are real accurate. Um, you know, we're creating challenges for ourselves. We're bringing up weather conditions, trying to determine what the operating parameters will be for an expanded port and harbor. Um and it also
00:02:28 the simulations help us to model how we will maneuver certain vessels. We get to see what the currents will do and help to predict the behavior of vessels that come in and out of the port. Uh this is our second time, well third time actually dealing with the coastal pilots. They also helped us with our other project in Dutch Harbor. So they send really really experienced crew uh
00:02:53 to to work with us and they they know how to handle the vessels. They know what the vessel should feel like uh in these areas because they've been there before and it's just a really good validation of what the models are telling us. And Joyy's a great proponent for the project. I mean she's she has a vision to to build out Gnome and and is a great strong proponent for having this
00:03:12 this project move forward. the partnership between the two organizations is is very strong and I think it continues to be that and you know there's a lot of work to do in Alaska and they recognize that Eric has the capabilities that they need to fill in the gaps to uh get them the information that they need and I think that the investment that we can make
00:03:30 both with you know engineering and economically and just to assist them in helping to design the proper port the dividends that it's going to pay will pay for the next you know several generations not just Today,
>> we're so thankful to have the Army Corps as a partner and we wouldn't have it any other way. Go Nome.