The City of Kenai is seeking proposals to assist with the development and completion of required design studies towards construction of bluff protection near the mouth of the northern side of the Kenai River.
The required studies from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers also include field surveys, draft plans and specifications to initiate draft preliminary engineering. Work includes geotechnical, civil structural and construction engineering professional services for construction of a rock revetment bluff toe protection effort. The work will be about a mile in length, according to the City of Kenai.
A pre-proposal meeting was held on Tuesday through Zoom. City Manager Paul Ostrander provides details to KSRM, “We’ve actually issued requests for proposals for the design of the project. We are going to be accepting proposals for that design portion of it and the intent of the RFP or the intent of the project is to get documents that are bid ready for construction. This will be the design portion. Following this would be the construction project itself.”
The severely eroding bluff on the northern bank of the Kenai River near the mouth into the Cook Inlet waters varies from 80 to 100 feet in height. Factors contributing to the degradation of the bluff include tidal surge, especially during high tide storm events, wind and ground water seepage. Ostrander says, “There’s a significant amount of infrastructure that we continue to lose. A perfect example is Vintage Pointe and the Senior Center. Projections right now show that within the next 20 years that facility, which is valued at 8-10 million dollars, that that will be compromised within the next 20 years if we don’t get a stabilization project completed. That’s just one example of much of the infrastructure that will be impacted if the bluff is allowed to continue to erode. The other part of it is that Old Town Kenai, where this active bluff erosion has been occurring, has seen almost no capital investment for the last several decades, at least, if not more simply because people are unwilling to invest in land or infrastructure there with that bluff actively eroding. If we can arrest that erosion, it will allow for capital investment in a part of the city that, again, hasn’t seen investment in many, many years.”
Ostrander stated that the project is in coordination with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, “The process, the entire design process, will probably take approximately one year. So we hope to have bid read documents. A shovel ready project approximately one year from when we award the contract for design. Now, once we have shovel ready documents, we need to continue to pursue federal funding for the construction portion of this project. The way that the Corps of Engineers project works, is that the federal government pays for 65% of the project and the local sponsor, which in this case is the city of Kenai, covers the remaining 35% of the project. It requires that Congress appropriates the money to the Corps and the Corps actually puts this project into their work plan for funding to be available to construct the project.”
Questions and bids are to be sent directly to Kenai City Hall to the attention of the Director of Public Works. The last day for questions is Tuesday, February 16 and the bids due date is Thursday, February 25 at no later than 12:00 p.m.
