The U.S. Coast Guard will base two new icebreakers in Kodiak and one in Seward, it announced Thursday.
The first two ships are expected in Kodiak in 2028, and the third ship is expected in Seward in the early 2030s, said Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska.
The new ships are part of an 11-ship medium icebreaker flotilla approved by Congress last year as part of a $25 billion Coast Guard funding package.
The Coast Guard hasn’t yet announced where it will station the other eight ships. The Alaska announcement is the first nationally and was at least partially intended to give the new homeports time to prepare housing and infrastructure.
While Alaska cities and the three members of the state’s congressional delegation have repeatedly urged the Coast Guard to station icebreakers in the state closest to Arctic ice, Coast Guard officials have voiced concerns about the state’s housing and childcare shortages.
Last year, the Coast Guard commissioned the refurbished icebreaker Storis in Juneau, its official homeport. Since that commissioning, the Storis has rarely been in Juneau because the state’s capital city has yet to break ground on $300 million in needed shoreside infrastructure.
Kodiak and Seward will need additional housing, utility infrastructure and new piers.
The three new ships and the Storis have the potential to bring a significant number of new residents to Kodiak, Seward and Juneau.
“This will be — an estimate on all four Coast Guard cutters coming — probably an additional 1,000 Coast Guard members, maybe even more with maintainers on the shoreside, plus their families,” Sullivan said. “It’s really exciting.”
With more people and ships comes more economic activity, creating a “virtuous cycle,” he said.
“The more ships we’re getting, the more we’re increasing our shipbuilding and heavy maintenance capacity in places like Seward, in places like Ketchikan, in places like Kodiak,” he said. Increased shipbuilding requires more people and more workers who require more shops and services.
“It is considerable, what comes next,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who held a news conference with Sullivan on Thursday. “It is not just about making sure that there are piers for these ships to come alongside. It is making sure that there is housing in our communities, it is making sure that we have childcare, it is making sure that our schools are there to meet our students.”
On Friday, the Coast Guard took a step in that direction by announcing that it will build 20 new three-bedroom homes and 10 new four-bedroom homes in Kodiak, plus a new child development center and play area.
That construction project is expected to be complete in 2028, the Coast Guard said.
“The Coast Guard is accelerating infrastructure planning to support Arctic Security Cutters homeported in Seward and Kodiak. This includes pier and waterfront construction, as well as personnel support facilities and housing,” a Coast Guard spokesperson said by email.
The new icebreakers intended for Alaska are among 11 “Arctic Security Cutters” ordered by the federal government earlier this year. The 11 ships include two different designs, and the first four ships — two from each design — are being built in Finland, with delivery expected by 2028. The remaining ships would be built in American shipyards whose workers would be trained in Finland.
Three other heavy icebreakers, suitable for work in Antarctica as well as at the North Pole, are planned, with the first under construction in the United States.
Those three ships were scheduled to be based in Seattle, but a dredging project at the base there has since been scaled back, and there may no longer be room for those ships.
A new homeport for the heavy icebreakers has not yet been announced.
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