The Small Boat Harbor expansion project cleared a major hurdle this week, with the Haines Borough receiving the Army Corps of Engineers 408 permit it has been pursuing since October.

The permit is a new requirement for any structure tying into an existing Army Corps project. The harbor expansion requires the permit because the project’s sheet-pile wave barrier ties into the rubble mound breakwater and modifies the navigational channel the Army Corps built in the harbor decades ago.

Interim manager Brad Ryan said the Corps put several conditions on the permit, but they “shouldn’t be an issue for us.”

“There are a couple of changes that came with the 408 permit, which include (using) larger riprap on the end of the breakwater on both the top layer and the underlayer,” Ryan said.

With the 408 permit cleared, the Corps can now move forward with the 404 permit, which considers environmental impacts, Ryan said.

Final scoping for the project is scheduled for June, Ryan said. The bid process should be open by October, and the project should be completed by May 2018.

“That’s assuming everything (goes) smoothly with the 404 permit,” Ryan said.

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