A fourth sink hole has opened up at the Lutak Dock, a reminder that the Haines Borough structure is in serious need of repair or replacement.
The hole about 18 inches in diameter was discovered last week, said harbormaster Phil Benner.
The hole is a result of fill leaking out the steel and earthen dock’s structure into the ocean, Benner said. The dock’s structure resembles huge, upright coffee cans (called cells) full of rocks and fill. The connection points between the cells are failing, causing the material to leak out, he said.
“Without digging up the whole area, it is speculation, but since it’s four different spots and all at the same distance away from the face of the dock at the connection points, there appears to be a systematic failure through the dock at the connections,” Benner said.
The borough previously has plugged sink holes with progressively larger and larger material. Holes typically reappear until the fourth or fifth round of fill is added, Benner said.
Because PND Engineers is in the midst of a structural investigation of the dock, the borough is going to leave the sink hole as-is. “PND asked us to just not fill it and see what happens,” Benner said.
In 2013, assembly members identified $2.6 million in improvements to Lutak Dock as the borough’s highest priority on its “wish list” to the Alaska Legislature. The upgrades would include repairs and improvements aimed at making the dock a potential transshipment port for ore and other minerals.
In 2014, the improvements moved down to second place on the wish list, behind the wastewater treatment plant.
The legislature hasn’t funded the project.
Mayor Stephanie Scott said she is taking U.S. Sen. Mark Begich’s field representative Sally Smith out to the facility soon to look at the sink hole. “We need money to fix that thing,” Scott said.
“It’s not very sexy; nobody really cares about a freight dock, because we don’t know where our stuff comes from,” Scott added. “We lose the dock and we lose fuel, we lose food.”
Public facilities director Carlos Jimenez said he expects to see the draft report from PND in the next two to three weeks. “I think it’s going to be a pretty complicated fix,” Jimenez said. “It’s going to be millions and millions of dollars.”
Benner said the borough is considering all funding options. “I think there are a variety of things we can look at. Of course, bonding is always one. And there is the route that we’ve been looking at for the past five years, which is a combination of public/private funding through the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority.”