As part of the original contract, PND had limited oversight of the construction. "Construction difficulties and non-conformance with the design specifications by the contractors were noticed by PND almost immediately," Pickering says.

PND claims construction crews mishandled the long sheet piles—pictures show the piles bent in half during transportation and heavy machinery driving over them in an apparent attempt to straighten them—inadequate control of slope stability of the gravel-fill dike, improper sequencing of pile installation, lack of pre-driving or pre-drilling in hard soils and a lack of quality control.

Brad West, president of West Construction, wrote Sullivan in February, reminding him that "concerns stated in our protest unfortunately turned out to be all true."

Failures at the Port of Anchorage "were the result of inexperienced contractors and project managers, and were not related to the design of the facility," West writes. "The facility can be constructed as originally designed if it is constructed by an experienced contractor and overseen by a competent project manager that is the municipality owner's representative."

Sullivan says that with $300 million already spent on the project and about $130 million set in reserve for design and initial construction of the restart, choosing the future design will hinge largely on "cost considerations."