Haines drops cheaper Lutak Dock option, leaving bidders only the full rebuild

Haines plans to seek bids only for a full rebuild of its partly collapsed Lutak Dock. Borough officials dropped a cheaper option that would have skipped tearing out part of the crumbling old dock, saying it wouldn't fit the federal grant paying for most of the work.

Lutak is Haines' main dock for fuel and freight. Forty feet of its face is closed, and a crack on its western side widened from 4 inches in March 2025 to 6 inches this April, according to a Nov. 6 borough memo.

A $20 million federal grant covers most of the roughly $25.6 million project. The borough's application for it rested largely on the dock's safety, the memo says, so the cheaper option "will not be consistent with the Grant." "Doing nothing with the crumbling dock (even if expressed as Phase I) is not consistent with the application," it says. Borough administrators consulted Mayor Douglas Olerud and the U.S. Maritime Administration, which oversees the grant.

The rebuild would wall in 100 to 150 feet of the existing structure behind a new bulkhead, tear out the rest and line that stretch of shore with heavy rock. It would add three mooring dolphins, freestanding structures that ships tie up to, while protecting the dock's fuel transfer system. The work would be bid as a single design-and-build contract with a $21 million budget.

Manager Alekka Fullerton told the Assembly on Oct. 27 that she hoped to put the project out to bid Nov. 18. Under the borough's draft schedule, construction would be substantially done by the end of 2028.

The Planning Commission reviews the plan Thursday and the Ports and Harbors Advisory Committee on Monday, before the Assembly takes it up again Nov. 18.