Coast Guard contracts $50.4 million for Sitka homeport

The Coast Guard will spend up to $50.47 million for the design and construction of new homeport facilities in Sitka, Alaska, to prepare for a new fast response cutter and improve support for a seagoing buoy tender already based there.

The Coast Guard’s Facilities Design and Construction Center awarded the contract Aug. 14 to the Whiting-Turner Contracting Company. The project is to prepare for the arrival of 154-foot Sentinel-class fast response cutter Douglas Denman, commissioned in 2022, and improved waterfront facilities for the 225-foot buoy Kukui.

Coast Guard officials say the homeport improvements are part of a “significant investment in mission support infrastructure supporting Coast Guard operations throughout Sector Southeast Alaska and the greater Arctic District. By modernizing and expanding waterfront facilities, this initiative underscores the Coast Guard’s commitment to ensuring readiness and resilience in the region.”

The Coast Guard is on track to extend the Fast Response Cutter program by at least 10 more vessels through 2030, and is already building up its Alaska forces with the Sentinel class vessels.

Construction is expected to begin in 2026 and be completed in 2028.

 Fast response cutters like the Denman feature advanced command, control, communications, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance equipment, as well as over-the-horizon cutter boat deployment, enhancing the Coast Guard’s operations to control, secure, and defend the U.S. border and maritime approaches.

The Kukui’s primary mission is the servicing of aids-to-navigation (ATON) buoys within an area of responsibility extending across the inland and coastal waters of southeastern Alaska. Other missions include maritime law enforcement, ports and waterways security, marine environmental response, and search and rescue.