The state last week began work on the new $15 million ferry dock, a project that will make the facility look like its Auke Bay counterpart in Juneau.
The project will remove the ferry dock’s sheet pile bulkhead and replace it with a boulder riprap slope, catwalk and steel pilings.
“It’s an aging facility and it’s time to replace the existing structure before it gets to the point of complete failure,” said DOT spokesperson Jeremy Woodrow.
Western Marine Construction arrived last weekend and began demolition. Most of the work will be completed by the end of this summer, though paving and other finishing work will be done by next spring, Woodrow said.
The dock, frequently referred to as the Lutak Dock, is made up of 15 “cells” which resemble large, upright coffee cans lined up parallel to the water. The Haines Borough owns the 11 western-most cells; the state owns the four used by ferries.
To preserve the integrity of the state’s side of the dock, DOT asked the borough if it could also remove the borough-owned cell closest to the state’s side.
The state had planned to reinforce the cell, but after learning the borough was planning to make changes to Lutak Dock because of structural concerns, DOT figured getting rid of the cell would be a win-win. Borough manager David Sosa agreed.
“While there is some concern that when the cell is removed there could be structural weakening of the adjacent cell, the borough recognizes that any plan for our portion of Lutak Dock would likely involve removal of all cells due to their structural weakness,” Sosa said.
Public facilities director Carlos Jimenez said partnering with DOT will save the borough money in the long-run, as the municipality would likely have to pay for removal of the cell later. “Whatever is chosen to do at the Lutak Dock, I think it is going to become pretty clear that repair is not feasible given the deteriorating condition,” Jimenez said.
The assembly recently approved the proposal and entered into a memorandum of understanding with DOT.
The borough initially thought an additional benefit of the cell’s removal would be the fill it freed up for reuse on future projects. Storage and transportation of the fill, though, would likely be expensive.
DOT engineer Jeremy Stephens told borough staff at a meeting of the manager’s Lutak Dock Working Group that the best site for storage would be the Chilkoot Lumber yard, though they would charge $500 a month to store the roughly 20,000 cubic yards of fill.
“We are going to have loads of dirt and we need a place to put it,” Stephens said.
In a recent manager’s report, Sosa outlined three options for dealing with the $120,000 worth of fill: relinquishing ownership and having DOT dump it on the west side of the lumber mill and fine grade it to match the surrounding area, maintaining ownership and paying the $6,000 yearly rent plus $200,000 to haul it back to the Lutak site, or maintaining ownership and stockpiling it on borough-owned property near the dock.
Sosa this week said the borough was in negotiations with Chilkoot Lumber to store the fill on their lot, as the borough’s parcel is too small and unstable. He said the $200,000 transportation figure was based on “initial numbers” and the actual cost of moving the fill won’t be that high.
DOT’s Woodrow said construction wouldn’t hinder the ferry’s ability to dock at the site. The only ferries that would have trouble are the Fairweather and Chenega, which aren’t scheduled to serve the northern Lynn Canal during construction, he said.