Forest Service seeks a shipyard to haul out and repaint its floating barracks

The U.S. Forest Service is looking for a small business to haul out and repaint the Misty, a steel barge with a two-story barracks on deck that the Tongass National Forest keeps as a liveaboard house barge. Offers are due Oct. 30.

The barge was built in 1979 and weighs about 90 tons, according to the agency's work statement. Its 61-by-26-foot hull holds fuel tanks, generators, a water treatment system and a wastewater treatment system, and it needs maintenance every five years.

The Misty is moored at Shelter Cove on Revillagigedo Island near Ketchikan. The Forest Service will tow it to the nearest harbor the winning contractor designates. It was anchored at Winstanley Island in Behm Canal in June, when the agency sought a contractor to tow it to Shelter Cove, according to an earlier towing solicitation.

Once it's out of the water, the job includes washing and painting the hull, replacing eight zinc anodes, repainting the deck, taking off its five anchors, sandblasting and painting rusted parts of the bilge, and cleaning its three water tanks and two fuel tanks. The work would run Nov. 10 through April 1, 2027.

The contract, issued through the Forest Service's Wrangell District office, is set aside for small businesses and would be fixed-price. Price is the main factor in picking a winner.