Three companies being sued by the City of Anchorage for
alleging mismanaging an expansion of the Port of Anchorage are trying to have
the suit dismissed.
Project construction manager Integrated Concepts and
Research Corp., known as ICRC; designer PND Engineers; and engineering and
construction company CH2M Hill were sued in March 2013 by the city. In
mid-April, all three companies filed motions with the US District Court in
Anchorage denying liability and seeking to have the lawsuit thrown out.
Anchorage’s suit came in the wake of a late 2012 report that
revealed three of four new sections built at the port were not constructed
correctly, and due to shifting land, could fail during an earthquake.
The $2.2 million, 2,200-page sustainability study was
conducted by CH2M Hill on behalf of the US Maritime Administration (MARAD) and
the US Army Corps of Engineers. It says the danger comes mainly from a
foundation system called Open Cell Sheet Pile, or OCSP, where instead of
building a traditional dock on piling, interlocking sheets of steel are
hammered into the sea floor to form U-shaped cells, which are then backfilled
with dirt and gravel.
Due to the problems, most construction of the project was
halted in 2010.
The city seeks an unspecified amount in damages in its
lawsuit, but the expansion, which has been in the works for more than a decade,
was originally estimated to cost $360 million, and was supposed to be complete
by 2011.
Instead, cost estimates have jumped to more than $1 billion
and continue to climb. Project completion is at least a decade away, according
to port estimates.
