The corps of engineers/port of anchorage connection: q&a with Stephen Boardman.

• Author: Kalytiak, Tracy

Stephen Boardman, chief of the civil project management branch for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Alaska, discussed the Corps' role in the expansion of the Anchorage Port.

ABM: How deep, how far offshore and how often has the Corps had to dredge near the present port location?

Boardman: Annual maintenance dredging occurs from May 1 to Nov. 1 along the existing dock face to no more than 1,000 feet off shore. Dredging is performed to the minus 38 feet Mean Lower Low Water elevation. The Cook Inlet Navigation Channel is about 6 miles from the port and was dredged in 1999 and 2000.

ABM: What role has the Corps performed in the port expansion, and what will it do there in the future?

Boardman: The Corps is not involved in the site preparation, type or location of the new dock facility. The Corps' most publicly known role is in its regulatory capacity to issue a Department of Army (DA) permit. The U. S. Maritime Administration, in partnership with the Port of Anchorage, is performing the design and construction of the new dock facility and the fill behind it. The work requires a DA permit, which the Corps' regulatory division has issued.

The Corps' second role is maintaining a federal navigation project to provide safe passage across the Knik Arm mudflats for commercial vessels accessing the dock facilities. Since MARAD is building a new dock, this results in a modification to the existing federal navigation project. The Corps must ensure dredging adjacent to the new clock will not compromise its structural integrity, disrupt navigation by commercial users, adversely impact the environment or create future maintenance inefficiencies.

The Corps' regulatory, engineering, environmental and operations elements are collaborating on a review of MARAD's preliminary dock design by the Corps Engineering Research and Development Center in Vicksburg, Miss., to determine how close to and how deep the Corps can dredge in front of the new dock facility. It also includes model studies to determine future shoaling patterns in the inlet that will help with projecting future maintenance dredging needs. The Corps has suggested certain structural design factors be considered and these are contained in the DA permit as conditions. The Corps will review MARAD's final design before its construction contractor begins installing the new dock. All concerns will have to be met before the Corps begins dredging in front of the new dock.

ABM: What has the Corps done to...