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Weekly UpdatesWhat a definitive year it was, 1961, with the world finishing up so much of its old business and embarking on so much new.
Princess Diana was born and Ernest Hemingway died. Construction began on the Berlin Wall, and most of us weren't even sure yet where Vietnam was. John F. Kennedy zoomed into the White House, Yuri Gagarin zoomed into space, Adolf Eichmann finally got tried, and Joseph Stalin finally got buried. Atop the Billboard chart, "North to Alaska"--a catchy Johnny Horton theme from a John Wayne movie--set the tempo for a hopeful, energized generation.
America was clearly a nation on the move.
FROM A BUOYANT BEGINNING ...
Alaska was moving, too. In September, the tiny, fledgling Port of Anchorage began operation, shoving only a modest 38,000 tons of cargo through its single berth by year's end. But a foundation had been laid, and by 2005 annual output would rise to more than 5 million tons, generating more than $750 million.
Ironically, it was Alaska's 1964 earthquake and resultant tsunami, still the state's largest natural disaster, that propelled the port into the big time. When two other docking facilities serving Southcentral were destroyed by the quake, the Port of Anchorage emerged by default into the leadership role it still occupies.
... To THE CURRENT REALITY
The Port of Anchorage has outgrown its 1961 dream and today is effectively maxed out in terms of services it can provide.
According to the Municipality of Anchorage, today's port:
* serves 80 percent of Alaska's populated area (including major military installations), from Homer to the North Slope, by means of rail, road and air cargo connections;
* handles more than 90 percent of all consumer goods sold in the Railbelt;
* stages 100 percent of the exports of refined petroleum products from the state's largest refinery in Fairbanks, as well as facilitates petroleum deliveries from refiners on the Kenai Peninsula and in Valdez.
"This project should have been done 10 years ago," said Alaska's former governor and current Port Director Bill Sheffield. "It wasn't."
Growth is expected to continue into the future, Sheffield said. The port needs to be ready to accommodate larger ships with deeper drafts and wider beams. New barge berths and transshipment areas are needed to improve the flow of goods to rural Alaska, as well as improved and expanded accommodations for cruise ships if tourist dollars are going to continue coming our way.
The expansion project is being funded cooperatively through various sources: 63 percent federal funds, 14 percent state grants and bond guarantees, and 23 percent port profits and port revenue bonds. Despite the $376 million total price tag, it is not anticipated that any direct costs will be passed along to municipal taxpayers.
"Anchorage doesn't 'landlord' the port or hire longshoremen," Sheffield explained. "Nothing will happen to the docking fees.
"The project is necessary, "he added, "not just for the Port of Anchorage, but for the needs of Alaskans."
PROJECT DESCRIPTION AND STATUS
The port's intermodal expansion program involves three phases:
1) Road and Rail Extension, which will improve cargo flow, reduce outside traffic, improve air quality, and support new military deployment requirements;
2) North Terminal, which will accommodate increased barge shipments, allow for barge business growth, support major construction projects, and improve barge and container ship traffic coordination; and
3) Dock Expansion, which will attract a wider range of customers by allowing for ships up to 1,000 feet in length and those requiring greater water depth. This step, specifically, will expand the current four functioning berths to a total of eight, to include two petroleum berths, one dry-bulk berth, three cargo berths, one cruise ship berth, and one barge berth. The cargo berths will include two spaces equipped with cranes and one roll-on/roll-off accommodation. The barge space will provide one in-water space and one dry berth.
The project has received a Finding of No Significant Impact, issued March 9, 2005, by the Maritime Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation.
"The expanded area is projected to be sufficient to accommodate projected increases in commodities and traffic through 2025 and beyond," the document reads.
Despite MARAD's finding, on March 26 of this year, the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Marine Fisheries Service wrote a letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers advising the corps to decline the preferred alternative of a sheet pile dock for environmental reasons. NMFS specifically cites endangerment to salmon and Beluga whales as its areas of concern, adding that if its recommendation of denial is not followed, it might seek "higher level review."
"We don't agree," said Deputy Port Director Kevin Bruce. "We think this conflicts with the fish studies we spent a year on." His office, he said, was preparing a letter to the corps responding to the NMFS charges.
What NMFS could actually do, Bruce explained, is to request elevation of the decision. This would refer the matter to the next higher level of authority in each agency, which means the decision would be made in Washington, D.C. At press time no such referral had been made.
At present, Bruce said, all that is needed for construction to begin is receipt of the 404 permit from the Corps of Engineers.
A BETTER PLACE TO DO BUSINESS
The Port of Anchorage receives four regular freighter shipments weekly, two by Totem Ocean Trailer Express-or TOTE-and two by Horizon Lines. Both carriers have been delivering freight to and from Alaska for the past 35 years.
TOTE, a privately owned roll-on/ roll-off carrier, links Anchorage with Tacoma. It specializes in transporting vehicles and oversized heavy equipment, including bulldozers. Its gargantuan M/V Midnight Sun and North Star, which joined the fleet in 2003, can each transport 600 highway-sized trailers plus 275 vehicles.
Horizon Lines, which transports lift-on/lift-off freight via its D-7 class vessels, connects Anchorage, Dutch Harbor and Kodiak with the intrastate points of Akutan, Bristol Bay, the Pribilof Islands, King Cove, Sand Point, the Kenai Peninsula and Prudhoe Bay. Horizon provides refrigerator units for transportation of groceries and other perishables.
TOTE and Horizon presently occupy a majority of the 31-acre staging and storing area, which is part of the industrial park to the east of the port. Another regular customer is Lykes Lines, a subsidiary of CP Ships/Hapag Lloyd, which offers direct container service to and from Asia. In addition to containerized freight, the port handles most of Alaska's refined petroleum products and ships from Asia carrying construction materials and bulk cement.
EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES
The Port of Anchorage has projected that its intermodal expansion project will provide approximately 1,100 to 2,000 new direct and indirect jobs due to construction between 2005 and 2011. After the expansion, the port is expected to provide between 640 and 710 direct jobs, plus another 1,600 to 1,700 indirect ones in transport, retail, wholesale, service, and support sectors.
Management is actively seeking applicants with expertise in the following technical areas: Project Management, Marine Engineering, Purchasing and Contracting, Cost Estimation/Scheduling, Construction Management, Computer Aided Drafting Administration, Health and Safety, Civil Engineering, Geographic Information Systems, Information Technology, and Quality Assurance/Quality Control.
Resumes or inquiries may be sent to: Anchorage Port Expansion Team, Attn: Program Manager, 421 W. 1st Avenue, Suite 200, Anchorage, AK 99501, or to icrc-ak@poaexp.com.
Tours of the port expansion area are available for individuals or groups wishing to visit the site, Sheffield said, although they need to contact his office at 561-4272 to make advance arrangements.
"We encourage you to do that," he added.
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