Borough gets nearly $18.5 million

MAT-SU -- Shortly after the federal omnibus spending bill was passed last week, the Mat-Su Borough got word that a few of its key projects had been earmarked for funding. All told, the borough stands to see nearly $18.5 million in federal appropriations.

The appropriation was part of the $375 billion federal bill that authorizes spending in fiscal year 2004. More than three months behind schedule, the bill passed after Senate Democrats abandoned delaying tactics that had stalled the bill after it was passed by the House nearly a month ago.

Some of the borough's biggest projects made it on the appropriations list -- $9 million for the high-speed ferry and $1 million for an intermodal facility at Port MacKenzie. Also on the list is $3 million for road improvements, $2 million toward a Mat-Su Borough float plane airport, $1.7 million for urban wildfire mitigation, $750,000 for the South Denali Visitor Center and $500,000 each for an emergency response radio network for the Mat-Su Borough and a pedestrian trail from Big Lake to Wasilla.

The coup appropriation is the $9 million for the high-speed ferry. Port MacKenzie Director Marc Van Dongen said the money will pay half the cost of designing and building the new high-speed, heavy-lift, shallow-draft capable watercraft. Routed through the U.S. Department of Defense through the U.S. Navy, the DOD, Van Dongen said, is using the new design as a test case or demonstration for future defense-related watercraft.

"There are other potential military applications," Van Dongen said. "The navy could potentially use it to take vehicles and tanks … into shallow water and drive them right off [onto land]."

In a presentation given to the Mat-Su Borough Assembly during its Jan. 20 meeting, Lew Madden explained that the vessel, dubbed the Knik TRB, could provide crash rescue capabilities for the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport as well as providing transport for up to 50 vehicles and 150 passengers for the 2.6-mile journey across the Knik Arm four times a day, and other trips. Lockheed Martin, the company working on the watercraft design, recently tested a small model in a testing facility to gauge its effectiveness under icy conditions. Although it handled the conditions successfully, Madden told the assembly the company is gearing up for a larger simulation, using a much larger model, to get a better understanding of its ice-breaking capabilities. The $9 million, Van Dongen said, will get the vessel about halfway to completion. He said the borough hopes to obtain the other $9 million next year, to complete the construction.

The $1 million appropriation toward a Port MacKenzie intermodal facility, Van Dongen said, would go to establishing ferry landing sites both at Port MacKenzie and in Anchorage. The Anchorage location, Van Dongen said, is still very much up in the air. A recent decision to expand the Port of Anchorage to the Cairn Point area, the same area previously discussed for the ferry landing, means the landing may be moved to the Ship Creek area. Van Dongen said the borough does not yet have a negotiation in place with the Alaska Railroad Corp. to place the landing site there, but a meeting is set up in early February with Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich and ARRC director Pat Gamble.

"We kind of have everything on hold right now, pending that decision," Van Dongen said. There is a little time to get things in place, he added -- the ferry is not scheduled to be complete until 2006.