Steel sources pause port project

MAT-SU -- Although steel sources put the Port MacKenzie deep-draft dock project on hold temporarily, the project is back on track and without, Mat-Su Borough officials say, any delay in the construction dates.

The Mat-Su Borough Assembly, in December, selected a low bidder for more than $2 million in steel and nearly another million dollars in pipe for construction of the deep-draft dock at Port MacKenzie. At the Jan. 6 Mat-Su Borough meeting, Borough Manager John Duffy told the assembly L.B. Foster, the low bidder for the steel portion of the contract, notified the borough that the steel they were prepared to ship was not of U.S. origin, as required by the bid specifications.

Because the funding for the port project is partially from federal funds, Duffy said Friday, the specifications regarding the source of the steel is very specific. Not only, he said, does the steel have to be manufactured in the U.S., it must come from U.S. ore and U.S. scrap metal, if reconstituted. L.B. Foster, Duffy said, had initially intended to use some scrap metal obtained outside U.S. borders.

Duffy told assembly members L.B. Foster was searching for other sources of steel, with a deadline of Jan. 6 to find one. If unable to find another source of steel, Duffy told assembly members, he had already notified the next-lowest bidder of the situation and would award the bid to them instead.

Friday, however, Duffy said L.B. Foster had found another source for the steel and the project was on track without any delays. The steel, he said, should be delivered in 150 days.