Kenai's council will award a bluff erosion contract the day after bids close

The Kenai City Council will vote Sept. 30 on a contract to fight erosion at the Mission Avenue bluffs. It does not yet know who will do the work or what it will cost.

Bids are not due until Sept. 29, the day before the vote, so the resolution in front of the council carries blanks where the contractor's name and the price go. The job covers relocating a water service, managing stormwater and controlling erosion. The money comes from a state grant rather than a federal one. It is the only item on the agenda, at a special meeting at 4:30 pm at Kenai City Hall.

The bluffs there are eroding about three feet a year.

A much larger project has been going on below them. The Army Corps of Engineers awarded Western Marine Construction about $19.3 million in February 2024 to build a 5,000-foot rock berm along the Kenai River's north bank, using 42,400 cubic yards of armor rock. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law covered 90 percent of the cost, with the nonfederal sponsor responsible for the rest.

That berm protects the foot of the bluff, not the top. An engineering memo to the city in November said erosion there is expected to continue until the slope stabilizes.