The borough this week went out to bid for a contractor to supply and install corrosion-preventing aluminum anodes on the steel pilings at Heritage Harbor. The job is estimated at $1.5 million.
The plan is for the contractor to start work in February and finish by April 2024, Harbormaster Steve Miller said last week. Bids are due Oct. 2.
The pilings for the harbor floats “are still in good shape,” Miller said, but are starting to corrode. Anodes were not included in the job specifications when Heritage was built. The harbor and its floats were completed in 2009.
Anodes, usually zinc or aluminum, “sacrifice” themselves by absorbing electrolytes in the water, protecting the steel pilings from corrosion. Miller described the installation of anodes as “preventive work.”
The project bid specs call for aluminum anodes, he said. “They last longer for this kind of work.” The pieces, which will range from 115 pounds to 260 pounds, should last 20 to 25 years, he said.
The project will involve installation of almost 500 aluminum bars, some as long as six feet. Underwater divers will weld the anodes to the pilings, affixing them below the minus-tide line.
While Miller hopes for competitive bids for the job, he said the fluctuating price of aluminum will be the biggest factor in the price. Aluminum prices have come down about 40% from the peak in 2022, but still are about 25% above pre-pandemic rates of 2018-2019.
Borough funds will pay for the work.
When the job begins, the harbor staff may need to contact some boat owners to temporarily move their vessels to make room for the contractor’s crew, Miller said. “But for the most part, we won’t have to move too much.”
The lack of corrosion-inhibiting anodes was discovered this spring when the Port and Harbors Department sent a diver to check that the sacrificial metal bars were doing their job. The diver could not find any on the pilings, prompting Miller, who was not harbormaster when the harbor was built, to check the plans. He learned that anodes were not included in the work specifications.
“I’m not 100% sure why they weren’t included,” he told port commissioners this spring.
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