Anchorage port audit past due

Anchorage Daily News: Federal auditors from the Department of Transportation are digging into the Port of Anchorage expansion project.

That’s good news, we hope. Maybe now we’ll have a detached, sober judgment about how and why the project went awry and what to do about it.

The feds will focus on oversight, risk management, contract awards and administration handled by the Maritime Administration. The city agreed to have the administration, or MARAD, run the project — even though it never had overseen a port project before.

Critics suggest MARAD still hasn’t overseen a port project, given that the projected cost has tripled since 2005 to about $1.2 billion and it’s become a construction nightmare, with much of the last two seasons’ work devoted to tearing out and redoing previous work.

Questions and cost overruns have plagued this project from the start. Engineers have questioned the design favored by Port Director Bill Sheffield. Shippers have seen deadline promises come and go. State legislators have backed the project, but bristled at shelling out too much before they can see the end. More federal money, which provided most of the $265 million spend as of May, will be harder to land.

The Anchorage Assembly wants the city to be more involved. That’s a good idea. Most of what Alaska consumes arrives at the Port of Anchorage, which is a city entity. The Assembly also wants a technical review of the design by the Army Corps of Engineers with money taken from MARAD. A city advisory panel has been recommending an independent review for years.