Coast Guard awards $36.4M Base Ketchikan repair job to Nome contractor

The Coast Guard has committed $36.4 million to repair a building at Base Ketchikan, the largest federal contract awarded in the Ketchikan Gateway Borough so far this federal year. The work went to Bering Straits Development Company of Nome rather than a local firm, through a single-award contract that drew one offer when the Coast Guard competed it in 2024. No Ketchikan firm could bid on this award.

The Coast Guard obligated $36,363,902 on Aug. 13 for maintenance and repair of the Industrial Production Facility at Base Ketchikan. Work is scheduled to run until Jan. 13, 2029, about 29 months from the award. No money had been paid out as of the record's last update. The records do not say what the facility is, what is wrong with it, or how many workers the job will bring to town.

Two other federal contracts in the borough come close in size, though both are totals built up over time: Western Marine Construction's Army Corps of Engineers floating breakwater replacement at $28.1 million, begun in June 2025, and Ahtna Infrastructure and Technologies' NOAA homeporting of the ship Fairweather at $24.6 million, begun in April 2021. The Base Ketchikan award is the only one of the three that started this year.

The new job is a task order, one job placed under a standing contract the record calls a "BRIDGE RMACC CONTRACT," awarded to Bering Straits Development Company in July 2024 and running until July 8, 2028, with a ceiling of $190 million, of which the Ketchikan order alone equals about 19 percent. It is an indefinite delivery contract, meaning the Coast Guard orders work under it as needs arise. It is a single-award vehicle set aside entirely for small businesses and received one offer, so every order under it goes to the same company. A separate design contract at Base Ketchikan, for a marine railway, received two, but it sits under a different standing contract that drew nine offers and spreads its orders among several firms.

Bering Straits Development Company, the construction arm of Bering Straits Native Corporation, has received seven federal contract awards totaling about $49.5 million since January 2024. The Ketchikan job equals 73.4 percent of that total and is 8.3 times the size of the company's next-largest award. Its other Coast Guard work under the same contract has been at Kodiak and Valdez, including $4.4 million for Hangar 3 at Kodiak and $3.7 million for the marine safety unit and carpenters shop at Valdez.

Ketchikan firms do hold federal work at the base and in the borough, mostly vessel repair and materials, led by JAG Alaska's three NOAA ship repair contracts worth $6.6 million, $5.6 million and $2.7 million. Other local awards include JAG Ketchikan's $3.2 million for the cutter Douglas Denman, Vigor Alaska's $3.8 million for the cutter John McCormick, and Ketchikan Ready-Mix and Quarry's $3.2 million for a Forest Service road. The records do not show whether any of those firms bid on the parent contract or whether any Ketchikan business will work on the facility repair as a subcontractor.

Appledore Marine Engineering of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, has held a $763,106 design contract since April 2024 for a marine railway at Base Ketchikan, running through June 30, 2028.

In February 2025, the Government Accountability Office said the service faces "a growing backlog of shore infrastructure projects that will cost at least $7 billion to address as of June 2024," up from at least $2.6 billion in 2019, when about 45 percent of Coast Guard shore infrastructure was past its expected service life. The GAO said funding has fallen short of targets: "Funding targets to sustain shore infrastructure varied from approximately $439 million in fiscal year 2019 to $709 million in fiscal year 2025," while "actual funding levels varied from approximately $255 million in fiscal year 2019 to $415 million in fiscal year 2024." That report, GAO-25-107851, does not break out Base Ketchikan's share of the backlog.

This account rests on federal contract records and the GAO report. None of the material includes comment from the Coast Guard, Bering Straits Development Company, the borough, the City of Ketchikan or local contractors.