The Skagway ferry dock was re-floated Tuesday morning.

"From here, they will be going through the process of evaluation,” Skagway Mayor Mark Schaefer said in an interview this morning.

"They are trying to figure out exactly what happened, checking the structure and the appliances on deck to try and figure out what they have to do to get the thing working.”

Schaefer said it appears the dock is stable, and the drive-down ramp has been reattached and is in good order.

The Plexiglas over the pedestrian walkway was damaged by the integrity of the steel frame but looks fine, he said.

The dock sank last Thursday morning, prompting the Alaska Department of Transportation to cancel all ferry service to Skagway until at least May 9.

"If we are lucky, we will have the facility working by then, and so far things are looking very positive,” Schaefer said.

The concrete dock measures 49 metres (160 feet) by 37 metres (120 feet) and is 3.6 metres (12 feet) high.

It is kept afloat by 24 concrete chambers which are air tight and watertight. There is some suspicion a municipal waterline running through the structure may have failed and caused some of the chambers to fill with water, leading to the dock's demise.

The line was turned on the day before the dock sank, and records indicate 500,000 gallons of water are unaccounted for.

A marine salvage company contracted out of Juneau was mobilized last weekend with two barge cranes.

Schaefer said a crew of 20-plus people began pumping water out of the 24 chambers at about 6 a.m. Tuesday during low tide.

There were about 20 pumps going, said the mayor.

"I think some of those pumps came out of Whitehorse,” he said.

"They collected pumps from all over and some were very large, eight inch, 10 inch.”

Schaefer said the dock was floating by about 10:30 a.m.

In an interview last Friday, the mayor described ferry service to Skagway as a lifeline for the community and the local economy.

The dock's failure comes at a particularly bad time as seasonal workers are beginning to arrive for the summer tourist season, he pointed out.

Schaefer said today he's heard there is an increased amount of traffic going through Haines to make the drive up and around.

Alaska Marine Highway statistics show that in 2013, 24,000 ferry passengers got off in Skagway and 22,800 boarded.

There were 7,600 vehicles – passenger cars to transport trucks – which arrived in Skagway by ferry last year and 6,700 departed.

The ferry runs to Skagway three or four times a week during the winter but everyday during the summer schedule, which was to begin this week.

Large cruise ships, which begin arriving in Skagway this week, use a different docking facility.

Smaller cruise ships do use the ferry dock, along with other large vessels such as local tugboats.