This project is the second of three phases in a $9 million redevelopment of the Kasitsna Bay Laboratory owned by the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration and managed by the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. The laboratory is located at a remote site, ten miles from the town of Seldovia on the south side of Kachemak Bay.

Kasitsna Bay is a state designated critical habitat area, utilized for subsistence fishing and recreation, and inhabited by an abundance of marine life. Marine science studies in Kasitsna Bay have been conducted by a variety of individuals and research organizations continuously since the 1950s.

The scope of this project includes renovation of an existing 800 sf dry lab, including installation of new laboratory casework and finishes; demolition of an existing dormitory trailer, wood boardwalk, and laboratory on concrete pilings; and new construction of a two story 4,800 SF dormitory, a 5,000 SF laboratory and 900 SF scuba support facility both on 10″ diameter pipe piling foundations, a 300 ft elevated boardwalk on 6″ diameter pipe piling, a 265 ft trestle supported by 16″ battered pipe piling and a 6′ diameter caisson, and a 90 ft long floating dock accessed from the trestle by a 90 ft aluminum gangway.

This project also includes installation of a sea-water supply system consisting of two submarine concrete intake structures, each connected to a 6 ft diameter steel caisson/trestle piling by 500 ft of 6″ diameter HDPE piping. Sea-water from the caisson will be pumped approximately 425 ft through two buried HDPE lines to two 4,500 gallon tanks at a location uphill from the project’s new main laboratory, where the system will gravity feed sea-water to the facility’s main wet lab.