$12.5 million awarded to finish Unalaska harbor

From the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers:

Sept. 23, 2010

Corps awards contract for Unalaska harbor floating breakwaters

ANCHORAGE — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Alaska District, awarded a $12.5 million contract on Sept. 21 to Pacific Pile and Marine of Seattle to construct and install floating breakwaters to complete the Carl E. Moses Harbor in Unalaska.

Federal funds totaling $11 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act allowed the Corps to award the final contract for this project which was begun in 2008. The City of Unalaska, as the local sponsor, contributed to the project.

The two concrete floating breakwaters, one 476 feet long and the other 804 feet long, will enclose a new harbor begun two years ago with a Corps contract to construct a rubblemound breakwater and launch ramp and dredge an entrance channel and moorage basin. The earlier contract also included environmental mitigation work of constructing 30 artificial reefs in three locations near the new harbor. The earlier contract was completed in November 2009.

The floating breakwaters will be constructed in Tacoma, Wash., in
98-foot-long modules which can be towed under their own buoyancy across the Gulf of Alaska to Unalaska, located on Amaknak Island in the Aleutian chain, 800 air miles from Anchorage. The floating breakwaters will be moored using stud-link anchor chain and large concrete anchor blocks.