Representatives from Moffatt & Nichol, the borough’s advisors on the Lutak Dock rebuild, presented elected officials last week with three potential dock design concepts.

The concepts represent a mostly new starting point after the borough cut ties with former dock contractor Turnagain Marine. The borough assembly is scheduled to make its top pick of the three Moffatt & Nichol options later this month. 

One of the options is essentially a more limited version of the design by Turnagain, Moffatt & Nichol project lead Paul Wallis said last month. 

Like the Turnagain design, the concept would build a new dock face in front of the existing dock, also known as encapsulation. Unlike the Turnagain design, it proposes a structure far smaller than the existing dock, with the rest of the old section demolished and replaced with rock pile, also known as rip-rap. 

The other two concepts would demolish the existing dock and replace it with a new type of structure. One would rebuild a new flat dock face, also known as a bulkhead, for barges to tie up to. The other would trade a flat dock face for a loading ramp on a float, allowing barges to unload over rip-rap. 

Each concept appears to have pros and cons. According to Moffatt & Nichol engineers, the encapsulation concept — the one most similar to Turnagain’s — might have advantages in permitting speed and level of functionality, both during construction and once it’s built. It might also be the least cost-effective, Wallis said.

At the moment, none of the concepts include cost estimates. 

The borough and Moffatt & Nichol representatives have stressed that the contractor’s role is to draw up a broad plan outlining shape and functionality, but will stop short of a detailed, ready-to-build design. 

That work will be left for a new contractor, expected to be selected from a bidding process at the end of July to finish and build the design. 

Despite the lack of specificity, Wallis assured officials last week that all the concepts are viable. 

That includes the ability to complete federal design-specific permitting before a key deadline: the source of much of the dock funding, the Federal Maritime Administration, has said permitting must be complete by Sept. 2027, or the funding could be taken away. 

Wallis said the subcontractor slated to handle the permitting process has said permitting for all three concepts would be able to meet that deadline. 

It also includes the ability to construct the concept within the borough’s total unspent dock funds — roughly $22 million, according to a March 24 memo from borough manager Alekka Fullerton. 

Some officials shared concern for unforeseen cost increases given cost overruns with the previous Turnagain design. 

Wallis seemed to draw a line between his firm’s process and Turnagain’s. 

“The previous constructor promised to encapsulate the whole dock for the money you had available, but eventually it came to light that was not economically feasible,” Wallis said. “At that time (Moffatt & Nichol) had been asked to provide a third-party review of what was purported to be (Turnagain’s) 95% design. Guys, you don’t get to a 95% design and then find out you can’t afford it.” 

Wallis followed by saying he couldn’t speak to exactly what went wrong with Turnagain’s process, but said he believed his firm could “rightsize any of these options for your scope, schedule and budget.”

One thing that is certain is all three designs will result in downsizing of the existing dock face. Wallis said at the meeting that the existing sections of the dock not covered by the new footprint would have to be demolished. 

“We can’t leave the cells there,” Wallis told officials. “If we leave the cells there, they’ll eventually collapse and the contents will spill out and that’s an uncontrolled failure.”