Alaska Marine Highway System presents long-range plan, warns of fund pressures and staffing shortfalls

JUNEAU — The Alaska Marine Highway System laid out a long-range plan Wednesday for modernizing its aging ferry fleet, tightening maintenance procedures and expanding shore-side and crewing capacity — while warning that the marine highway fund will need about $4 million more per year to avoid a growing deficit.

"Our safety goal for AMHS is no harm to people, equipment, or environment as well," said Craig Tornga, marine director for the Alaska Marine Highway System, as he opened a presentation to the Senate Transportation Committee in Juneau. Tornga told senators the system began operational-level tracking for 2024 and reported 51 employee injuries and zero vessel spills for the year; AMHS recorded six terminal/customer spills that were contained before reaching drains.

Dom Pinone, director of program management and administration, summarized AMHS finances and said the calendar‑year 2026 budget proposal assumes a $76,000,000 federal grant, $20,700,000 in farebox recovery and $61,400,000 in unrestricted general funds. Pinone said if revenues remain flat the marine highway fund balance could decline toward a negative position and that AMHS will need roughly $4,000,000 more per year between now and FY2026 to stay in the black.

The presentation flagged reliability problems tied to the age of vessels. Tornga said several ships have required extended shipyard work: LaConte is delayed for car‑deck replacement into July, Columbia underwent a fire‑main replacement after a past fire, Aurora needs further fire‑main piping work ordered by the U.S. Coast Guard, and Tustamina has had strut and rudder repairs that extended its yard time.

"For 2024, we had a 98.51 uptime," Tornga said, noting that figure measures vessels in operation and excludes yard overages. He added that AMHS implemented a computer maintenance management system in 2024 to track OEM maintenance and will add dry‑dock modules this year to better manage shipyard specifications and maintenance alerts.

Workforce shortages were a central theme. Tornga gave 2024 hiring and separation counts by craft: seven mastermates and pilots hired and 11 separated; one engineer hired and eight separated; and mixed results across wipers, oilers and AB/ordinary seaman ranks. He described partnerships with University of Alaska Southeast (UAS) and APTEC for required courses and sea time and noted a recently awarded training grant (~$500,000) to fund courses that cost about $28,000–$30,000 per trainee.

Senators pressed on route choices and vessel design. Tornga described planned new vessels — a low‑no day boat and two mainliner replacement vessels — with diesel‑electric propulsion, redundant generators, battery peak‑shaving capability and standardized wheelhouse layouts to ease crew training and maintenance. A design RFP for a new ferry was due back in mid‑March, and Tornga said mainliner construction could put a new vessel in service by late 2028, subject to procurement and Buy America certification.

Buy America rules were a recurring risk factor. Tornga said the FTA requires demonstrating roughly 70% domestic content for some procurements and that the department is seeking clarity and, if necessary, waivers from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to preserve eligibility for federal funds for certain terminal projects. Senators also discussed restoring Prince Rupert service and Hyder access; Tornga said those options remain under consideration but could be affected by federal procurement constraints.

Committee members urged a focus on reliability and predictable schedules. Chairman Senator Bjorkman noted canceled cross‑Gulf sailings strand passengers and businesses; Tornga said AMHS heard reliability consistently during community outreach and that the long‑range plan prioritizes improving schedule dependability.

Next steps: AMHS released the long‑range plan document the prior Friday, opened a 30‑day public comment period and scheduled a public webinar for March 19 at noon to present the plan and gather feedback. The Senate Transportation Committee adjourned at 3:03 p.m.; it is scheduled to meet next to hear DOT presentations on rural airports and to complete a winter road maintenance briefing.