State plans to sell DOT 50,000 cubic yards of rock from a Lowe River quarry

The Alaska Department of Natural Resources plans to sell the state transportation department 50,000 cubic yards of rock and riprap from a quarry on the Lowe River east of Valdez, according to a public notice posted Thursday.

Riprap is heavy rock placed along riverbanks and road embankments to keep them from washing away. The transportation department would take the material from the 52-acre site, on the south bank of the river near Mile 16 of the Richardson Highway, from 2027 through 2032 under a five-year contract.

The rock quarry at Mile 16, near Keystone Canyon, opened in the summer of 1983, when a contractor began producing riprap there for Alyeska Pipeline Service Company. That work turned out rocks from about 2 inches to 10 feet across, and Alyeska did "considerable secondary blasting" to break the big ones down to usable sizes, according to a transportation department inspection report. The site has produced riprap for several projects since.

The transportation department has bought rock there before. In 2018, the natural resources department proposed expanding the quarry from 9 acres to 76 and selling the transportation department 150,000 cubic yards over five years at less than market value, for maintaining and improving roads.

The new sale isn't final. The natural resources department's Division of Mining, Land and Water may attach conditions after reviewing the application, and the plans could change during that review, the notice says. It does not list a comment deadline.