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Cruise Boats Will Call on Lewiston by Elaine Williams Lewiston Tribune, November 10, 2024

Facilities for cruise boats being constructed at Port of Lewiston and are expected to be completed by March

American Cruise Lines plans to moor in Lewiston and Clarkston in the future when more places to anchor its vessels are ready.

"American values our strong relationships and partnerships with many regional ports and communities," Alexa Paolella, a spokesperson for the company, said in an email.

"Our future plans include dockings at both the Port of Clarkston and the Port of Lewiston, enabling additional opportunities for our guests to explore on shore, while contributing to positive economic developments in the region," she said.

Paolella provided the update at a time when a new facility for overnight cruise boats is expected to be finished at the Port of Lewiston in the middle of March, just before the start of the next season, for a route along the Columbia and Snake rivers. Until this project is completed, Lewiston doesn’t have facilities geared toward receiving cruise boats.

Instead, cruise boats have usually docked at the Port of Clarkston, which has two places for them to dock. One is north of the Holiday Inn and a second at its former crane dock at 14th Street.

American Cruise Lines is adding a gangway at a site along the Clearwater River just downstream from Lewiston’s railroad bridge on the north side of the waterway.

That gangway along with three existing circular concrete and rock structures driven multiple feet into the riverbottom that have tie-ons for boats will provide a new place for one or more cruise boats to stay, said Scott Corbitt, general manager of the Port of Lewiston.

The concrete and rock structures are being upgraded at the Port of Lewiston as part of the project previously reported to have an estimated cost of $1.6 million, he said.

American Cruise Lines will pay the Port of Lewiston a lease rate of $50,000 per year and $400 per docking to use the facility, Corbitt said.

The Port of Lewiston will upgrade the site using $2 million from the state of Idaho, allocated by Gov. Brad Little, in improvements scheduled to be ready at the same time as the mooring area, Corbitt said.

Those improvements will include a driveway and turnaround area large enough for buses, a parking lot with 75 spaces, a pedestal for the gangway American Cruise Lines is adding and landscaping, Corbitt said.

Two more phases of upgrades are planned for the site, but are not scheduled at this time.

Related Pages:
American Cruise Lines Begins Largest Season Ever on Columbia and Snake Rivers by Sarah Kuta, Travel Pulse, 4/24/24
American Queen Voyages Cancels All Cruises, Shuts Down Operations by Eric Bowman, Travel Pulse, 2/20/24