As a community on the island Wrangell’s docks and harbors are the mainstay of daily life. However, the newest harbor may be reduced by half due to an essential component was not put in place. The time is not yet to secure harbours, however the expensive repair will have to be completed shortly.
“Mother Nature is trying to thwart you all the all the time,”” stated Harbormaster Steve Miller sitting on the embankment, looking out at Heritage Harbor, about a mile to the south of the town.
“Every harbor, once you begin putting steel into salt water, you find that every boat has various metals, but not all boats are wired. You’ve been able to connect AC current, and you’ve got DC current you’ve got a myriad of currents in this area which means that everything has to be moved somewhere,” Miller said. “There’s grounding rods to take care of those AC courants. However, for the for DC currents must find ways to be grounded as well.”
Then, it finds its way to the earth is often through steel pilings that are scattered around the harbor. This eats away at the steel.
It’s a standard in the industry for metal harbor components to be equipped with what’s known as “sacrificial metal” connected – and it will degrade faster than other materials surrounding it, thereby protecting the boat or piling.
However, Wrangell’s Heritage Harbor, upgraded in 2009 was not equipped with the protection referred to as anodes – installed on the pilings.
In the middle of the month of March Miller states that his company has hired a diver to find conditions of piles in the town.
“He arrived here and began to conduct a survey to examine the pilings and to examine what the anodes were like,” Miller said. “He called me and was saying, ‘There’s no anodes..'”
This is affecting this particular Heritage Harbor pilings. Miller states that they look older than other pilings which contain anodes, despite the fact that the Heritage pilings are actually more modern. Rusty patches that were underwater fell away beneath the diver’s fingers to reveal patches of forearm-sized decaying metal.
“The effect is quite astonishing,” he said.
Incorporating anodes into Heritage Harbor would be no difficult task. Each anode weighs greater than an ordinary NFL linebacker. Heritage will require more than 450 anodes to be welded, under water and onto pilings across the harbor.
“There’s lots that you can do” Miller said.
An estimate by engineering put the cost for the construction project to around 1 million dollars. That’s not even counting the other docks without anodes like the pilings in the municipal shipyard and the concrete dock. In addition, adding anodes to those docks could cost a half-million dollar or so. The funding will likely be sourced from city’s harbor reserves. The urgent need for the project does not make it an ideal option for grant funding that is slow to move through procedures.
However, Miller claims that the project could increase the life of components in the harbor.
“These are 50to 60 years of lifespan pilings and floatings,” Miller said. “Without anodes, typically about 30. Even if we install them within the next couple of years I’m sure we’ll extend time for the pile by an additional 30 years, at the very least.”
Miller says it’s not certain why the anodes were taken in the harbour. Miller believes it was due to the cost. Heritage Harbor was an award-winning project that was funded by grants. it could have needed an initial penny to get the job done.
“I don’t think this was an oversight. I would guess that it was thought of,” Miller said. “But once it was to the money, it was trimmed out.”
It’s not uncommon, Miller says. Miller points out that nearby communities such as Petersburg and Sitka have recently completed anode-related projects.
“I’ve had discussions with engineers many times, this is the way we operate at Southeast Alaska,” he explained. “When we’re constructing new harbors, if they’re built in phases like this, it’s something could be re-built back within 10 to 15 years and continue to ensure that things are protected.”
It’s been 13 long, and now it’s a major Harbor Department priority. Miller stated that he and the Port Commission are jumping in on the project as soon as is possible in the next few days.
