The borough has contracted to finish the design work so that it can go out for bid to stabilize the earthen dams that hold back the community’s two water reservoirs.
A $5 million state grant will pay for the project.
The assembly last month approved spending an additional $114,450 to finish the design and engineering work for the project.
Borough officials have been meeting with representatives of the engineering firm Shannon & Wilson and the state’s dam safety office to advance toward the final design plans.
The design and engineering work was 35% complete last month when the assembly approved the additional spending to get the job to 100% “and turned into a biddable project,” Amber Al Haddad, Wrangell’s capital projects director, reported to the assembly Dec. 17.
The plan is to go to bid this year for the construction work, Borough Manager Mason Villarma said.
Strengthening the dams has been a top priority for the borough for several years. The governor and Legislature last year approved a $5 million grant for the work.
A contractor had drilled into the century-old dams and determined they are solid enough that additional buttressing to strengthen the structures would add to their longevity.
It’s possible the borough may go to bid on two projects at the water reservoirs at the same time, in hopes of saving money, Villarma said. The municipality has more than $3 million in federal grant funds for putting in a new line connecting the upper reservoir to the water treatment plant and could bid out that work with the dam stabilization project, he said.
There already is a line from the lower reservoir to the water plant, but the additional bypass line from the upper reservoir will improve reliability when the lower reservoir goes offline for maintenance or when the community needs additional water supplies from both reservoirs.
The federal aid for the new bypass line is a combination of a direct grant and the final pandemic relief funds paid to the borough last year.
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