Anchorage Assembly weighs $4.2 million more for Port of Alaska storm drain work

Mayor Suzanne LaFrance has asked the Anchorage Assembly to add $4.2 million to Granite Construction Company's contract to rebuild storm drains at the Don Young Port of Alaska. The Assembly takes up the change order Tuesday.

The port handles three-quarters of all non-petroleum marine cargo shipped to Alaska, according to the municipality's 2026 proposed utilities budget.

The increase would bring the contract to about $17.6 million. Granite signed it in December 2025 for about $5.8 million to rehabilitate Storm Drain Systems 001 and 002. The administration also wants $400,000 more in change order authority, citing "the probability of additional unforeseen conditions."

The port found errors in its own bid tab quantities, according to the change order memorandum prepared by project manager Nichole Rehm and recommended by Port Director Terry Umatum. The memo says those errors led to large material overruns for excavated soil disposal, contaminated soil disposal and classified fill. It also lists work to mitigate Bootlegger Cove clay along the JBER hillside, unexpected utility conflicts and failing storm drain infrastructure that was not on the plans.

Alaska News reported Sept. 17 that crews at the site found soil more contaminated than expected. Umatum told the Assembly's Infrastructure, Enterprise and Utility Oversight Committee that day that the location is "just more contaminated than we thought." "We have to actually send this soil out of state," he said.

The Assembly approved an earlier $7.6 million change order on July 7. That order added Storm Drain System 005 and pushed completion to May 1, 2027.

A federal Defense Community Infrastructure Pilot grant pays for the work: $10.85 million in federal money plus a $4.65 million local match. The grant covers Systems 001, 002 and 005. Umatum told the committee in September that the port needs about two and a half months after construction ends to close out the grant.