Three outhouses east of Cordova, and a $1 million to $5 million estimate

The Forest Service is looking for a contractor to replace three outhouses along the Copper River Highway east of Cordova: two single-vault toilets at Mile 18, and a double at the Alaganik Slough recreation area. Quotes are due Oct. 6, and only small businesses may bid.

The agency puts the value at $1 million to $5 million. That is not all outhouse. The contract carries five options the Forest Service can exercise or not: two sheltered picnic structures at Alaganik Slough, another at Mile 22 with aggregate for it and the parking area, a new camping pad with parking, and widening three parking pads while regrading four camping pads.

Alaganik Slough sits about 19 miles east of Cordova in the Chugach National Forest. The Forest Service describes it as having "4 picnic/camping sites, firepits, pit toilets, bear-proof garbage, and a boat launch," along with a 900-foot wheelchair-accessible boardwalk and viewing shelters that visitors with limited mobility rely on to get out there at all.

An earlier regional project list had an Alaganik Slough renovation at $300,000, due to be finished in 2024. What the current solicitation covers and what that listing covered are not necessarily the same scope, and the record does not connect them.

The money comes from the Great American Outdoors Act, the 2020 law that set up a fund for the backlog of deferred maintenance on federal land. The contract runs from late October through September 2027.