The Haines Borough Assembly this week approved $136,000 to check the integrity of its 633-foot metal wave barrier. Built in 2017, the steel wall was centerpiece of the borough’s $20 million harbor expansion project.

Harbormaster Shawn Bell said in an interview that the inspection is a routine one prescribed by the “owner’s manual” that came with the $8 million wall.

At a recent assembly committee meeting, borough manager Annette Kreitzer reported problems with a similar but smaller barrier in Skagway’s boat harbor, one designed by the same engineering firm and built by the same contractor as the Haines structure.

“You hate to see the cost of this, but as a precaution we want to have an inspection to make sure there’s not damage that’s not unseen to us. It’s a preventative thing that may find a problem and may not,” Kreitzer said.

Harbormaster Bell told assembly members that underwater inspection would include measuring thicknesses and pile depths, checking for pitting or premature wasting, inspecting welds and testing the effectiveness of cathodic protection. “The biggest expense is getting a diver involved and mobilizing all their equipment. This amount is on the more aggressive side for an inspection,” Bell said.

Municipal and engineering company officials in Juneau and Skagway this week said that the apparent cause of the Skagway failure is faulty manufactured welds made by a Lower 48 company that is no longer in business.

In November, piling and sheet piles fell off the 330-foot metal wave barrier protecting its harbor. The Skagway structure was built in 2009 for $9 million and includes a public catwalk on top, closed since last winter’s failure.

Both structures were built by Pacific Pile and Marine of Seattle and engineered by Peratrovich, Nottingham and Drage. (PND’s Seattle office worked in Skagway; the company’s Juneau office, in Haines).

PND Vice-President Dick Somerville this week characterized steel waves barriers as proven technology in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest, citing similar structures in Whittier and Sitka.

Somerville said he doesn’t know all the specifics about the Skagway problem, as another engineering company has been called in to lead repairs. “I’m not familiar with this kind of failure. It’s not normal,” he said.

It was unclear this week whether the same company that made the manufactured welds on the Skagway wave barrier also worked on the Haines structure. A representative of contractor Pacific Pile and Marine this week declined comment on what company was responsible for the faulty welds.

Skagway did stabilization work on the barrier this spring but repairs are awaiting permitting. KPFF, an engineering firm from Seattle, is working on remediation work there.

The steel wall design was chosen after tests found the Portage Cove sea floor too soft to continue southward with the existing, rubble-mound breakwater. The warranty on the Haines structure was for one year. Bell said the inspection could happen as early as late summer.