The city of Anchorage, Alaska announced March 3 that it has
filed a lawsuit in US Federal Claims Court against the Department of
Transportation Maritime Administration (MARAD) regarding MARAD’s alleged
mishandling of a project to expand the Port of Anchorage.
In the lawsuit, which was filed Feb. 28, the city seeks
monetary relief as a result of what it calls MARADs breach of its contract
regarding the expansion.
“We won’t throw a (specific monetary) number out just yet,”
Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan said during a March 3 press conference.
The port expansion project, which has been in the works for
more than a decade, was overseen by MARAD until the US Army Corps of Engineers took
control in May 2012. The expansion was originally estimated to cost $360
million and was supposed to be complete by 2011. Instead, cost estimates have
jumped to about $1 billion and climbing and completion isn’t expected for
another decade.
“It is extremely important that all those responsible for
the project not being completed in a timely and cost effective manner be held
responsible,” Sullivan said. “The Port of Anchorage is too important for the
economy of this entire state to accept the level of mismanagement that occurred.”
Three of four new sections built at the Port of Anchorage
were not constructed correctly, and due to shifting land, could fail during an
earthquake, according to a $2.2 million sustainability study that was conducted
by engineering firm CH2M Hill on behalf of the US Maritime Administration and
the Army Corps of Engineers.
The study, which was released in November 2012, was
requested by the Corps after it assumed control of the Port of Anchorage
expansion project from MARAD in 2012.
According to the study, the danger from the construction
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.
The suitability study determined that the OCSP system is not
adequately designed to meet global stability and seismic displacements based on
the design criteria.
“The management of the project was not handled competently,”
Sullivan said. “With a project as important as this, any of those involved with
the project need to be held accountable for what their actions were.”
Engineering firm CH2M Hill, which conducted the
sustainability study, has since been named project manager for the expansion
and Sullivan said that the company is expected to begin work by the end of
March on the development of a new project management plan.
The management plan is expected to take about 12 weeks to
complete, according to the city.
The archived video of Sullivan’s press conference on the
lawsuit can be watched in full at http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/44483341.
