$200 million a small price to get the port and Valley in business for the long term

Former Anchorage Mayor Rick Mystrom has taken to the road in support of building a rail spur to Port MacKenzie. Most recently he called on the Palmer Chamber of Commerce.

He makes a good point: If the spur isn’t built, the state would have $40.2 billion. If the spur is built, bringing the estimated 3,500 jobs that go with it, the state will still have $40 billion.

It’s in the state’s interest to build the spur. This isn’t a Valley or port project, this is a project that will benefit the Interior as well as Southcentral. It would move minerals from up north to huge freighters bound for Asia and elsewhere.

There are many projects in the future that would benefit from this direct shot to the port.

If the state ever decides to build a gas line, the spur would be at the staging area at the port where large pipe can be offloaded and then taken by rail to the construction site.

Any one of the three proposed routes will cut at least 140 miles off the railroad trip to Seward.

Anchorage doesn’t have a deep water port, so Port MacKenzie would have a stranglehold on shipping. And with the railroad there, distribution in the most cost-efficient way would open up commerce to the most populated portion of the state.

And then there are those jobs. If Mystrom is correct, 3,500 jobs would be a boon for the state not seen since the pipeline was built. And these would be high-paying jobs that would be a boost the state’s economy.

Last, but not least, there’s been a dearth of projects in Alaska. There was a time when Alaskans thought big and built big. The construction of the new prison at Goose Bay is the biggest project going now. The in-state gas line and the rail spur are two projects that can put people to work and benefit the state long into the future.

Money is available to build the spur and it won’t take long to see it completed — if we start working on it now.

It’s time to quit sitting on our hands and start being makers and builders like we once were, instead of being nonchalant consumers.