ALASKA RESOURCE REVIEW SPRING 2025 40 Work also underway on Port of Alaska cargo dock replacement BY TIM BRADNER THE U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS ACCEPTED NEW BIDS ON THE NOME PORT EXPANSION PROJECT APRIL 28 FOLLOWING THE FAILURE OF BIDDING IN A FIRST ATTEMPT AT THE BIG PROJECT. Fixed price bids are being requested for the new bid. The project will consist of a 1,200-foot extension to the existing Nome causeway consisting of a rock embankment and 18-ton armor stone. The causeway will include a 30-foot road surface and a 600-foot open-cell sheet pile dock. Also, the bid will include removal of a 250long spur breakwater and existing 22-ton armor stone at the nose of the causeway. The Army Corps cancelled solicitations last fall after bids came in above statutory guidelines. After failing to receive bids within budget last fall, the city and Corps simplified the plans for the first phase of the project and sent it back out for bids this spring. The city and the Corps hope to select a contractor and move forward with construction next summer. Graphite One, the company developing a large graphite deposit northwest of Nome, has plans to use the port. Meanwhile, progress is being made on the long-planned reconstruction of cargo docks at the Port of Alaska, which is owned and operated by the Municipality of Anchorage. The city’s assembly has approved an $807 million contract with a joint-venture of Manson Construction and Michels Corp. to rebuild the Port of Alaska’s Terminal 1, one of two cargo docks at the port. The contractor will replace the aged dock with a new pile-supported dock with a concrete deck 870 feet long and 120 feet wide. The overall project will be funded by a $1.1 million revenue bond that will be paid for through fees charged to users. Most of the cost will ultimately be borne by consumers because costs will have to be passed on. The project is to be complete by 2029. In other infrastructure developments, state legislators are asking for a new look at two long-planned and partly done rail extension projects for the Alaska Railroad. One is the 32-mile rail link from Port MacKenzie, on Knik Arm of Upper Cook Inlet, to the railroad’s main track near Houston, in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough. HJR-14, by state Rep. Kevin McCabe, R-Big Lake, and 12 co-sponsors in the state House is asking for the state to renew a request for federal funds. This project is essentially two-thirds done, with rail embankments mostly complete and small section of track installed. Work was halted in 2016 when oil markets, and state revenues, collapsed. The Matanuska-Susitna Borough has been trying to revive the project but there is no state or federal money, and without customers the Alaska Railroad can’t issue revenue bonds to finish the work. The second project is the Northern Rail Extension to build 89 miles of new track east from Fairbanks to Delta. The Alaska Railroad did a lot of work on this in 2010 with a bridge across the Tanana River at Salcha completed. It is now used by the U.S. Army to support training on the south side of the river. Permits and rightsof-way have been completed to complete the rails to Delta. The Alaska Railroad is bullish on both projects but doesn’t have the resources to build them without customers. On Port MacKenzie, “We see great potential, both as an asset for future export industries, as well as providing security in redundancy for the most heavily populated part of the state,” the railroad’s CEO, Bill O’Leary, said in a letter to state legislators. “The state had already made a significant investment in the 32-mile rail extension from Houston to the port before funding stalled and construction came to a halt. Completing the project, currently estimated at roughly $275-300 million, is too big for the Alaska Railroad to take on alone, but we believe it’s important for Alaska’s future,” O’Leary said in the letter. Similarly, the Northern Rail Extension is not a new project. “Phase 1 (of four phases) was completed in 2014, constructing a 3,300-foot bridge over the Tanana River near Salcha. Full completion of the project, at a projected expense of $1.7 billion, would entail 89 new miles of track connecting North Pole down to Delta Junction, enhancing military access to training at the Joint Pacific Alaska Range Complex and potentially supporting future commercial opportunities in the Interior — something that would be good for industry without increasing the burden on the state’s limited highway system,” O’Leary told legislators in his letter. Like the Port MacKenzie rail extension, this project is almost ready to go. In 2010, the federal Surface Transportation Board issued a Record of Decision granting the railroad authority to construct and operate the extension. There is a (route) alignment decision in the ROD but there are two areas where the final route was left to be decided. While the ROD is still valid, the railroad would need to work with the Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to finalize the alignment before proceeding to construction. NEW BIDS TAKEN ON PORT OF NOME PROJECT VOLUME 2 | ISSUE 2 | SPRING 2025
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