Kenai awards $98,000 contract to move bluff water line after no bids

The Kenai City Council awarded Peninsula Construction a $98,000 contract Wednesday to move a water service line now covered by no more than a foot or two of soil on the bluff where Mission Avenue once ran. The council approved the contract by unanimous consent after the city sought bids and received none.

City Manager Terry Eubank said the line will freeze this winter. A rupture, he said, would cause another significant erosion event on the bluff.

Spring runoff from city streets gathered on Mission Avenue this year and spilled over the bluff, Eubank said. HDR Engineering, the design team on the city's bluff stabilization project, drew up a plan he described as a mitigation measure, not a permanent fix. The plan called for moving the line, placing sandbags at the end of Main Street near the church, and laying vegetative mat where the ground gave way. After no bids came in, Public Works met a local contractor on site and got the $98,000 quote.

The contract is not the job the city advertised. "We're not doing exactly the project that was bid out. We were doing what the contractor felt comfortable and what they're able to do," said Lee Fry of the city Public Works Department. Fry said the main work is moving the water line. The contractor agreed to try some erosion work while his equipment is on site, aiming to get vegetation growing. The contract is on a time-and-expense basis.

The mayor said Fry confirmed with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that the remaining balance in the bluff erosion project can cover the work, so it is not coming out of the city budget "per se." That balance traces to a $19.3 million construction contract the Corps awarded in 2024 for the Kenai River Bluffs Erosion Project, with federal funding covering 90% of the cost. The Corps said the bluffs were receding about three feet a year.

The council had postponed the award, Resolution 2026-63, at a Sept. 30 special meeting, as Alaska News previously reported. At a May 6 council meeting, Eubank said utility lines there were no longer 10 feet from the face of the bluff and would likely need to be relocated.

Fry said the city would issue a notice of award Thursday. The contractor hopes to move equipment onto the bluff next week.