The Haines Borough’s Lutak Dock is “near the edge” and living on “borrowed time,” according to a recently released draft report.
The report, completed by PND Engineers, says the structure is failing in several locations and does not meet current safety standards set by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
“Highly-loaded vehicles may suddenly fall into an undetected hole with potentially severe consequences to persons, and equipment and property,” the report said.
Haines Borough manager David Sosa held an emergency meeting with representatives from the two primary dock users, Alaska Marine Lines and Delta Western, and identified two exceptionally sensitive areas for closure to vehicle traffic.
The dock’s structure resembles huge, upright coffee cans (cells) full of rocks and fill. The connection points between the cells (closure arcs) are failing, causing material to leak out into the ocean, creating weaknesses and sink holes in the structure.
The structure meets standards for withstanding a “low-intensity” earthquake. “Above this level of ground shaking the structure cannot withstand earthquakes at the current ‘design event’ level criteria mandated by building codes, waterfront design guides, or departments of transportation manuals,” the report said.
PND’s primary recommendation to the borough is to plan for “full replacement…as soon as credibly possible.”
Where the borough goes from here in terms of fixing the problem is unclear. Whatever the borough decides, it needs to decide soon, said public facilities director Carlos Jimenez.
“Due to the fact that it is where we receive all of our fuel and all of our food and all of our dry goods for the entire town, it’s imperative that we deal with it. How we do it is yet to be determined, but it’s imperative that we do something,” Jimenez said.
Options include repairing, upgrading or replacing the dock. Sosa is working with a group out of the University of Alaska that specializes in “strategic doing.” That group can meet at the beginning of December to help the assembly develop a plan for moving forward, Sosa said.
Port and Harbor Advisory Committee chair Norm Hughes called the borough’s relationship with the dock “long and straining.”
“Either we repair it or we replace it. Putting it off until a later date is just no longer an option,” Hughes said. “With all the interests and mining and development in the Interior and Haines being a transshipping port, those things should all be taken into consideration when we reinvest in the Lutak Dock.”
Regardless of what the borough decides, it will be extremely expensive, Hughes said. “We are going to need federal funding. It’s going to be a lot of money,” he said.
The borough is currently getting cost estimates for the installation of trench plates, large pieces of steel that distribute weight and would temporarily mitigate the risk of collapse, Jimenez said.
In the case of catastrophic failure of the Lutak Dock, barges could dock at the Port Chilkoot Dock, though that wouldn’t be an ideal situation. The new Port Chilkoot Dock wasn’t built for industrial use, which would “wreck the dock,” Jimenez said.
The PND report cost $89,500.
PND representatives will brief the assembly on the report Oct. 28. Jimenez said while the issue is pressing, he isn’t overly concerned about any immediate hazard.
“If we are cognizant of what the situation is and we try to stay in areas we know are solid, I don’t think it’s a big deal. I mean, it’s a big deal, but we don’t need to shut the port down,” Jimenez said.
For the past several years, the assembly has identified repairs to the Lutak Dock as one of the municipality’s top priorities in its “wish list” to the Alaska Legislature. The legislature has not funded any of the repairs.