The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is seeking public comment regarding a cruise ship dock project in Petersburg. The comment period runs Sept. 1 – Oct. 1. It’s one of the final steps in the permitting process.
American Cruise Lines is a cruise ship company that frequently stops in Petersburg, bringing fewer than 200 passengers per port call. It’s increasing its summer visits, and plans to build a dock near downtown for its passenger ships to tie up to during the cruise season.
The company is taking steps to establish moorage sites in communities across the region. The project in Petersburg would, in a nutshell, construct “deep-water berthing infrastructure” in the Wrangell Narrows, the waterway in front of town.
The Petersburg Borough Assembly unanimously approved a lease agreement with American Cruise Lines in April.
The Borough will lease part of its tidelands at the end of Dock Street, next to the U.S. Coast Guard dock, to the company, which will build a moorage float and gangway there to support its cruise operations.
The moorage float would be 24 feet wide and 160 feet long. The gangway would be 10 feet wide and 100 feet long. The project would also entail dolphin floats and frames for steel piles to construct the cruise ship dock.
In-water work would start in March of next year and take about four weeks to complete, according to the public notice.
But the project needs a permit before work can begin, and before it can issue that permit, the Army Corps needs to vet the project with the public.
Written comments can be submitted by emailing regpagemaster@usace.army.mil — or online through the regulatory request system.
The Permit Application number for comments to refer to is POA-2026-00356.
The feedback is used, in part, to determine the need for a public hearing, the overall public interest of the project and to “evaluate the impacts of this proposed activity.”
