Barges will use old sawmill dock while ramp under repair

A lifeline for food and supplies needs fixing - one of the flotation tanks beneath Wrangell's barge ramp has a hole.

Port Director Steve Miller said harbor staff at the end of August noticed the ramp wasn't raising high enough.

There are two buoyancy tanks below the ramp.

By adding or removing air, the ramp, originally constructed in 1977, can be raised or lowered to meet the deck of the barge to match the tides.

A second flotation tank was added in the 1980s to handle the additional weight when an extra layer of steel was placed on top of the 140-foot-long barge ramp, Miller said.

Harbor staff powerwashed both flotation tanks to see if there was a leak in the portion of the tanks visible above the water. There wasn't. So Miller sent a diver into the water to look below.

The second flotation tank didn't look good, Miller said.

"There is a part where the flotation tank actually touches bottom," he said. "The coating has come off, and it's just open to salt water."

Port and harbor staff plan to pump additional air into the undamaged tank to get the ramp as high as possible. A local contractor, Tim Heller, of Heller High Water, which is doing piling work at the city dock, will swing the entire ramp and damaged tank onto his barge this week.

"He's got a crane on there, and he'll unbolt everything," Miller said. "He'll float the tank out because it will still be kind of buoyant, and then we ... will hook onto it with our boat and take it to the boatyard."

Miller anticipates the wealth of talent available at The Marine Service Center will be able to handle the fix.

"If they can tear a whole side of a boat off and completely repair it, put it back and make it look better than new, I think they can handle a couple of these air tanks," Miller said.

In the meantime, barges will have to land at the former sawmill dock at The Marine Service Center. The barges will come in broadside, Miller said, and side-tie at the dock.

Using the dock at The Marine Service Center for freight isn't unproven territory, Miller said. Alaska Marine Lines has used the dock in the past for Trident Seafoods containers.

In the meantime, the ramp can be parked on the back of Heller's barge for a month while the tank is repaired. "We have that amount of time to work through this issue," Borough Manager Lisa Von Bargen said at the Oct. 12 borough assembly meeting, where Miller briefed assembly members.

Miller said he can't estimate a cost until the contractor swings the tank out and they can get a good look at the damage.

He said it is fortunate Heller was already doing work at the city dock.