The city of Kenai is paying almost twice as much as initially estimated for a bluff erosion study.
The Peninsula Clarion reports the Army Corps of Engineers is splitting the study’s cost with the city. Initially estimated at $650,000, several factors have pushed that price to about $1.17 million.
Army Corps of Engineers Kenai Bluff Stabilization Project manager Dave Martinson says a wider-than-normal scope and increased costs of other elements of the study have driven the price upward.
Project approval depends on an expanded analysis that includes regional and local factors in addition to any national economic benefit. The study is one of the last steps before construction can start on 5,000 feet of bluff face where about 3 feet of bluff-top is eroded annually.
