ANCHORAGE — Repairs at Port MacKenzie are adding up to millions in costs for the Matanuska-Susitna Borough.
Port director Marc Van Dongen told Alaska Public Media that a planned permanent repair in 2017 may cost another $1.5 million on top of money already spent.
He said an insurance payment and previously appropriated emergency funds will help the port budget shoulder next year’s cost.
The barge dock at Port MacKenzie has undergone several repairs since fall 2015 when damage was discovered.
Mat-Su Borough manager John Moosey has told Assembly members that further insurance reimbursements are not certain.
Van Dongen said seismic activity could be behind the damage.
It’s unclear what’s caused the most recent damage.
“We don’t know the exact cause of the problem yet, until we pull the piles that have been split,” Van Dongen said. “Once we pull them and study them, we can determine if perhaps we hit a rock on the way down, and started a crack, or if the interlocks came apart or we’ll test the hardness of the steel on the sheet pile to see if it met specifications, it may have been a deficiency in the pile itself.”
He said an engineer needs to estimate the repair costs for 2017.
The Assembly needs to approve funds before the project is up for bid.
