Posted on August 18, 2025
As the local and national press was focused on the historic meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, August 15 at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, the meeting drowned out a big announcement from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Alaska District – based at JBER — relating to the Port of Nome: A contract was awarded to Kiewit Infrastructure West Co. of Vancouver to begin building the long-awaited port expansion.
Just this week, city officials told the Nugget that a decision by the Corps was not expected to be made before the end of the year.
However, the Corps on Friday said that Kiewit received the construction contract for Phase 1a of the port expansion, valued at $399.4 million.
Phase 1a entails the removal of the causeway spur, a 1,200-foot causeway extension with 600 feet of dock face.
Prior to tackling Phase 1b, the Corps will continue with Phase 2, which entails dredging the port’s outer basin to minus 28 feet, from the current depth of minus 22 feet, and dredging a deepwater basin to minus 40 feet.
The next step would be work on Phase 1b, continuing the building of the west causeway out for an additional 2,284 feet and adding 1,870 feet of dock face.
Phase 3 would be the last step, removing the east break water and building out another 2,410-foot-long causeway for 800 feet of added docking space, a 1,450-foot long breakwater and a 130-foot long causeway bridge.
“A robust and efficient transportation hub at Nome is foundational to the long-term viability of surrounding communities in the region,” said Col. Jeffrey Palazzini, commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – Alaska District. “We are committed to assisting the City of Nome by providing a reliable solution that improves the port’s navigation efficiency.”
The City of Nome is the so-called non-federal sponsor of the port expansion, officially dubbed the Port of Nome Modification Project, and as such is financially responsible to cost-share with the Army Corps. The city is obligated to contribute 10 percent of the Corps’ costs in building the navigational aids, which include placing the large rocks into the water for the causeways and breakwaters.
The city is entirely responsible to bear the costs of the so-called local service facilities — the dock faces, roads, lights, build-out of fuel, electricity and other infrastructure on the causeways. Also, the city is to assist with the creation of a crew camp for the time of construction.
Congress allocated $250 million to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the project through a bipartisan infrastructure law called the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act championed by the Biden administration; in 2022 the Alaska Legislature allocated $175 million for the City of Nome’s cost obligations for the port expansion.
The Corps and the City signed a partnership agreement in January 2024, which pegged the costs of the entire project at $662,569 million. The bid awarded for nearly $400 million for Phase 1a suggests that the entire project will be significantly more expensive. Previously, the project’s 2020 feasibility study estimated the cost at $618 million.
The Army Corps’ first call for Phase 1 bids last year has resulted in a cancelation. The sole bid entered had surpassed the available funding for the project and exceeded the “statutory cost limitations.”
The Corps and the City then cooperated on paring down the project’s first phase and split it into two sub-phases and issued another call for bids on Phase 1a.
According to a Corps’ press release the entirety of the harbor expansion project aims to provide larger vessels with improved access to Nome’s existing harbor and creating a new deep-water basin. “The new port project will serve research and public safety purposes as well as an important pivot point for the nation’s military presence above the Arctic Circle,” the press release said.
Just last week, high-ranking U.S. Coast Guard officials and two Congressmen with the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation subcommittee, visited Nome to be informed about the Port of Nome’s expansion prospects.
