Unalaska council awards $21.9 million contract to replace Storrs Harbor floats

Unalaska will spend $21.9 million to replace the failing A and B floats at the Robert Storrs International Small Boat Harbor, under a contract the City Council awarded last week. The acting city manager told the council the alternative is losing the harbor.

Marjie Veeder wrote in the council packet that she was recommending the project in part because of "the likely need to close the harbor in the near future" if it did not go forward.

The harbor holds 71 slips across 1,232 linear feet of floats and takes vessels up to 60 feet. The work covers demolishing the existing floats and building new ones, along with new piles, a gangway, a restroom, and upgraded electrical, water and fire suppression systems. Western Marine Construction submitted the low bid. The harbor has to be usable again by July 1, 2028, with everything finished a month later.

The full construction budget is about $25.25 million once contingency and inspection are added. The council appropriated roughly $10.6 million in general fund cash to the harbors capital project fund, which staff wrote fully funds the project.

The city is chasing outside money to offset that. Veeder reported applications for about $5 million from the state's Harbor Facility Grant Program and up to $1 million from the Denali Commission, plus a $125,000 state legislative grant it is applying to the work. Neither of the two larger grants has been awarded, and the Denali money depends on winning the state grant first.

Demolition and construction are expected to constrain moorage while the work runs. No comments from harbor users appear in the meeting record.