Ketchikan gets a good bid to replace demolished harbor building, director says

Ketchikan has received "a good bid" to replace the port and harbors maintenance building demolished after an Oct. 15 storm drain failure, Port and Harbor Director Wayne Phillips told the Port & Harbors Advisory Board on Tuesday. He said the contract could be awarded late this year or early next, and he hopes crews will have a new building by spring or early summer.

Bids on the replacement were scheduled to open Nov. 3, according to Phillips' written report to the board. He did not give the amount or name the bidder on Tuesday.

The Oct. 15 weather event caused a failure of the storm drain that runs through the Bar Harbor parking lot, flooding Tongass Highway, Phillips said. The pipe ran directly beneath the maintenance building, which had to be evacuated and demolished. "We kind of did that in record time," he said. His report says portions of the parking lot need to be excavated to replace the storm drain.

The replacement did not begin as a storm response. At the board's June meeting, Phillips reported that Alaska Architects and Engineers were redesigning the maintenance building (June board meeting record). On Tuesday he called the fact that the project was already out to bid the storm's one upside, "if there is a silver lining in it."

At the Nov. 5 City Council meeting, staff said demolition crews found a sinkhole about 20 feet by 12 feet by 6 feet beneath the old building (council meeting record). That night the council added $150,999 to the storm drain contract with P&T Construction, bringing it to $249,999. Gov. Dunleavy declared a state disaster for the Ketchikan Gateway Borough on Oct. 17, and the state's situation report listed port facilities among the damage.

A council member asked Tuesday whether the city could recover the cost of the building. Phillips said it could, along with the storm drain, and that Public Works and the city manager's office have already applied for reimbursement.

Until the new building is done, maintenance staff are working out of three Conex boxes holding equipment and a small container serving as a "little mini office" and workshop. Phillips said it will be tight, but crews know the building is coming and it "will be a big upgrade" over the old one.