The Juneau Assembly passed a resolution late last week during a special meeting to support the homeporting of a second Coast Guard icebreaker in Juneau. Whether that will become reality is uncertain.
The resolution follows an announcement by the Coast Guard earlier this month that three new icebreakers would be homeported in Alaska — two in Kodiak and one in Seward.
President Trump’s reconciliation bill last summer, called the One Big Beautiful Bill, included nearly $9 billion for the construction of 11 new Coast Guard icebreakers. The Coast Guard hasn’t yet announced the intended homeports for the eight other ships.
“We had heard that Alaska was getting several icebreakers now, so we figured that we would put our name in for getting another one,” said Juneau Mayor Beth Weldon in an interview with KTOO explaining the resolution.
In 2024, the Coast Guard announced its plan to homeport an icebreaker in Juneau after Congress passed a spending bill that appropriated money for the ship’s purchase. The 360-foot Storis was originally an oilfield services ship that was converted into a polar icebreaker. It’s designed to operate in the Arctic and expand U.S. presence in the region. A ProPublica investigation of the ship published last year revealed it has a design problem and a history of failure.
Coast Guard officials say the ship is planned to be officially homeported in Juneau in 2029, following the completion of $300 million worth of shoreside infrastructure.
According to the Assembly’s resolution, the Coast Guard says it’s considering homeporting one of the new icebreakers in Juneau as well, but nothing has been made official. The Coast Guard confirmed the concept in a slideshow presentation to city, state and tribal entities in Juneau.
The Assembly’s resolution says it “strongly supports and encourages the United States Coast Guard to homeport two major cutters in Juneau,” referring to the Storis and a future Arctic Security Cutter. It says the city pledges to work with the Coast Guard and other agencies to ensure “exceptional housing, schooling, and community support for incoming service members and their families.”
According to the city, the icebreakers are estimated to more than double the Coast Guard’s presence in Juneau compared to recent years, bringing in more than 200 active Coast Guard personnel and more than 400 of their family members to town combined. As of 2023, there were about 150 Coast Guard members in Juneau.
