Coast Guard orders $113.7 million water line replacement at Base Kodiak

The Coast Guard on Thursday ordered $113.7 million in work to replace water lines at Base Kodiak, whose aging water system the service says is the base's only source of drinking and firefighting water.

The order went to Gilbane Federal of Concord, California, which is to design and build the new lines, with work scheduled to run through October 2031, according to the federal award record.

Base Kodiak has its own public water system. It draws water from Buskin Lake and treats it before sending it through pipes and storage tanks, according to the base's 2025 water quality report. A 2024 inventory found no known lead service lines, the report says.

The underground system runs about 28 miles and serves about 3,500 customers, including private partners connected to the base, according to the Coast Guard's final environmental assessment for the project, published in January. The assessment found the replacement would have no significant environmental impact.

Separately, a $2.5 million contract with Bering Straits Development Co. of Nome covers repair of drinking water piping in the base's Lower Government Hill housing area, with work scheduled through December.

The water project comes as the Coast Guard expands in Kodiak. Earlier this year, it ordered about $458 million in other work at the base: 30 homes, a child development center and a $315 million fuel pier with up to two berths for major cutters. It also plans to base its first two Arctic Security Cutters in Kodiak, with the first expected in 2028.

Kodiak Island Borough officials have been weighing what that growth means for Kodiak. A departing Assembly member warned in June that the community needed to prepare for the incoming families, and in July, Assembly members informally agreed to send a colleague to Washington, D.C., to press for federal money for roads, the landfill, water and sewer.