The Municipality of Anchorage wants to hire engineering and construction firm CH2M Hill to manage the Port of Anchorage improvement project -- which has been mired in controversy -- but some members of the Anchorage Assembly are not so sure.
At a special meeting of the Assembly on Friday, members quizzed municipality and CH2M Hill officials about the proposed deal. Their biggest issue with the choice of the company to run the port improvement project is the fact that the municipality is currently suing CH2M Hill -- for work already done at the port.
In September 2007, CH2M Hill bought out former Alaska oil field and construction services company VECO. VECO had overseen the initial design and installation of controversial open-cell sheet pilings at the port's north dock. The pilings were supposed to create new dock space by allowing workers to backfill earth and rocks, but much of that work will have to be redone after the pilings failed and allowed Cook Inlet silt to flow under and around them. The municipality sued, and when CH2M Hill purchased VECO, it inherited the court case.
In January, the Municipality of Anchorage announced it had chosen CH2M Hill as its port improvement project manager despite the ongoing lawsuit. The contract was reviewed by the municipality's nine-member Bidding Review Board and recommended to the Assembly for passage. But on Friday, Assembly members peppered both the municipality and CH2M Hill with concerns about the proposed contract. Those worries included questioning the wisdom of hiring a firm to do work on a project the city is already suing it over, the potential of spending $30 million over the next five years for a project manager when the city has yet to choose a final design for the project, and why the management team had to be picked now.
"This is a political body that obviously has a problem with the company that bought VECO," Assembly member Amy Demboski said.
Demboski said she was concerned that CH2M Hill might manage the project even as VECO, the company it acquired, is being blamed for many of the project's failings. Others on the Assembly had concerns about the terms of the contract and the possibility that some of the people who worked on the failed VECO designs would again be back at the port in the future. Representatives for the municipality said it would create a "firewall" between the current lawsuit and the port work going forward, though specifics on how they would create that firewall have yet to be put in place.
Municipal Attorney Dennis Wheeler defended the contract award to CH2M Hill, saying the company had the best and most cost-effective bid of five companies that replied to the request for proposals. But Assembly member Bill Starr doesn't believe that the "firewall" is working. Starr said he has been "pushed hard" to approve the CH2M Hill contract by former VECO -- and current CH2M Hill -- employee Denis LeBlanc.
"I don't think that was appropriate," Starr said.
Starr also said he was uncomfortable with the length of the contract -- five years with the possibility of two two-year extensions. Starr wants to see that cut down to just three years, so the contract doesn't tie the hands of future mayors and Assembly members.
Assembly member Jennifer Johnston proposed delaying approval of the CH2M Hill deal for a few weeks so the members could take a better look at the contract and the port improvement plan. Currently, the contract is set for a vote at the Assembly meeting scheduled for Feb. 13.
Regardless of what happens at the upcoming meeting, Johnston had a warning about the current state of the port. Johnston said she has talked to officials from one of the Port of Anchorage's biggest customers, Totem Ocean Trailer Express, which brings barges full of goods to Anchorage twice a week. Johnston said the constant tides of Cook Inlet have built up silt at the port and have required the company to move its ships to deeper water during unloading, when the tide goes down. Attempts to dredge away the silt have not fixed the issue.
"Whatever we do on this, we can't continue to have this problem," Johnston said.
Contact Sean Doogan at sean(at)alaskadispatch.com.