The Haines Borough is continuing to inch forward in its effort to get moving on fixing the Lutak Dock.

The borough is looking for qualified design firms to come up with conceptual options for replacing or refurbishing the dilapidated dock, a critical piece of borough infrastructure used to receive freight and fuel deliveries.

A draft request for proposals, put together by public facilities director Brad Ryan, will be considered by the Port and Harbor Advisory Committee at its Aug. 3 meeting.

“I’ve been wanting to move it forward since I took over (the public facilities position) and haven’t had the opportunity since the manager wasn’t in place, so hopefully we can get it going,” Ryan said.

In August 2015, the borough issued a Request for Qualifications, then rescinded the document due to flaws about a week later. In February, the borough developed a new draft Request for Proposals and received some input from the Port and Harbor group.

Ryan said one of the differences in the new document is the proposals won’t be judged on price, meaning that won’t be factored into the scoring criteria. That will allow for the proposals to be gauged more on their merit and thoroughness, he said.

The borough does state in the RFP the range of available funding for the conceptual design work is $100,000 to $130,000.

The selected consultant will provide the borough with 35 percent designs and cost estimates for three options. One would shore up the existing structure with walls, piling and/or fill while keeping the existing dock size and functionality, another would design for demolishing the existing dock and replacing it with one of similar size and capability, and a third would feature the consultant’s own design recommendations.

“I’m hoping that we can maintain the footprint and functionality we have and hopefully build in some expandability if there is future opportunity,” Ryan said. “This is a big enough priority that we just need to figure out how to keep it open.”

A structural analysis of the dock released in 2014 by PND Engineers determined the dock was “near the edge” and “living on borrowed time,” a finding that alarmed some residents and public officials.

Ryan said the borough hasn’t identified any funding sources for the project’s construction, which will run into the millions.

Manager Bill Seward said the Port and Harbor Advisory Committee will be handling the project as opposed to the Lutak Dock “working group” former manager David Sosa formed for the purpose.

The working group hasn’t met for about a year.

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