Anchorage Assembly to consider two Port of Alaska corrosion-protection contracts worth up to $2 million each

Two engineering firms could each earn up to $2 million over five years guarding the Port of Alaska's seawater pilings and petroleum pipelines against corrosion. The contracts are on the Anchorage Assembly's consent agenda for Tuesday, Oct. 6, among items the agenda calls "typically routine" and "not required to be set for public hearing."

Mayor Suzanne LaFrance submitted the recommendation for Coffman Engineers and Taku Engineering. Each contract is capped at $400,000 a year. Each runs one base year, with four optional one-year renewals. Both are indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contracts, meaning the port orders work as it needs it. No single order could exceed $150,000.

The firms would inspect, monitor, maintain and design the port's corrosion protection. That work includes the impressed current cathodic protection and galvanic anode systems already in place at the port, which slow rust on steel using a small electric current or blocks of metal that corrode in its place.

The municipality said in an April grant announcement that the port's "aging, corroded docks are at risk of failure in a significant earthquake." A modernization program estimated at $2.8 billion is replacing them.

Two proposals arrived by the April 30 deadline. Both firms met the requirements. Both were selected.