Almost two years after a windstorm sent a tree crashing down and breaking apart the gangway at the Roosevelt Harbor dock on Zarembo Island, the heavily used facility is back in operation.

A U.S. Forest Service contractor finished the repair and rebuilding job on Nov. 1 and the dock and gangway reopened for public use on Nov. 2.

The work also included reattaching the floating dock to pilings. The storm that broke up the gangway also broke the dock away from the pilings.

The job cost $214,000, said Paul Robbins Jr., public affairs and partnerships staff officer for the Tongass National Forest in Ketchikan.

The final price was higher than the original bid due to the addition of a 35-foot-long glulam (laminated wood) structural beam and replacement of custom hot-dipped galvanized brackets, Robbins said.

The dock had been closed since the December 2024 windstorm knocked down a large tree that split the wooden gangway between the dock and shore, ripping through its planking and railing.

“The Roosevelt dock repair is complete, just in time for the rut!” Robbins said in an email on Nov. 4. The Forest Service had hoped to have the project completed for the start of the deer hunting season on Aug. 1, but delays in material pushed the timeline back — though the work was finished a month before the end of the hunting season on Nov. 30.

Roosevelt, about a 12-mile boat ride southwest of Wrangell’s downtown harbor, is a popular access point to Zarembo for hunters and recreation users. There is a parking lot and road access to the Forest Service Deep Bay public-use cabin. 

Juneau-based Carver Construction was the contractor on the job, which also included replacing all of the rotted and rusted attachments that connect the floating dock to pilings.

The dock was damaged in a 2022 windstorm — almost the same week two years earlier than the 2024 storm. The 2022 damage was repaired in the summer of 2024.