With leftover money in the budget, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently decided to move ahead with the Kenai bluffs feasibility study.
City Manager Rick Koch said the City agreed to fund 50% of the study back in 2011, but there have been delays…
Koch: “The federal government has spent $5 million on this project already. Federal projects just take forever. There are so many groups and sections of the Corps that are involved in a project of this time, and so many studies that move it forward incrementally.”
The Army Corps redirected funding from three cancelled projects in Alaska. Koch said U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski recently pushed through a change which brought Alaskan projects to the forefront…
Koch: “Alaska and Hawaii are in their own funding pot, rather than the funding pot for the whole nation, so that provides a situation in which we only compete with the rest of Alaska and Hawaii for the funding that goes into a separate pot and that was remarkably good news when she was able to make that happen and I know she did that with an eye towards this project. She’s been a wonderful supporter of this at the federal level.”
Money is now in place from the state and city and the Borough has donated in-kind contributions in the form of access to rock quarries. Federal money is still needed for the construction phase.
The study itself will cost $654,000. The City will cover its share through two state appropriations, one of which expires this June.
As we’ve been reporting, the Corps will conduct fieldwork this summer which will set the stage for potential construction on the bluffs as early as 2017.