Mat-Su assembly decides to sell off parts of Port Mackenzie

The Matanuska Borough Assembly has decided to sell off parts of its Port MacKenzie, which has seen little use despite high hopes originally.

At its January 18 meeting the assembly passed a resolution directed Borough Manager Mike Brown to find a buyer for the bulk loading conveyor system at the port, which needs extensive repairs.

One estimate for repair costs was $600,000. The assembly resolution told Brown to get what he could by selling the conveyor.

There’s potential for Port Mackenzie, a consultant group told the assembly on Jan .11, but not until a half-built rail spur to the port can be finished. That would allow bulk cargoes to be transported to the port for ship loading, or from it after freight is unloaded.

However, the consultants were pessimistic about the port if the borough fails to invest in proper staffing and marketing, they said.

“At present, Port Mackenzie has very little traffic, inadequate port staff, and limited business development activities,” said the report, which was prepared by the International Association and Maritime Port Executives, a nonprofit group.

The Port has handled a limited number of vessels and cargo since its development in 1999. This included eight log and wood chip ships in 2005 and three cement ships between 2009 and 2010.

The last deep draft vessel to call was in 2012. After that the port did not handle a ship in eight years until June, 2020, the report said

Historically, Port Mackenzie has handled cargoes of super-sacks of cement, heavy equipment, and cargo related to specific projects. “Based on existing business, the port is expected to handle an average of one ship and six barges per year,” the report said.

One private venture that seemed promising a few years ago, and for which the conveyor was needed, was the harvest and export of wood chips from Southcentral Alaska forests.

However, the cost of harvesting and transportation to tidewater plus the deteriorated condition of much of the wood due to beetle infestation made the venture uneconomic.

The conveyor system built by the wood chip developer was transferred to the borough in 2020 but it had not operated in years and needed extensive repairs.

Even dormant, a facility like a port needs upkeep. “Once a port is built, it confers the responsibility of its maintenance and upkeep on its owners, practically in perpetuity,’ the consultants said. “The port can either be maintained on a proper schedule of preventative maintenance, or maintenance can be deferred which will increase its cost.

“One needs only look across the Knik Arm at the Port of Alaska to see how the costs of deferred port maintenance can mount to an astounding degree,” the consultants said.

“Deferring maintenance is a short-sighted and dramatically more costly approach than keeping a preventative maintenance schedule. Nor is it tenable to lock the gate and stop spending on maintenance: inadequately maintained docks either receive costly repairs or fall into the water,” the report said.

Stated alternately, a port cannot simply be mothballed. “It can either be maintained regularly, maintained irregularly at much greater cost, or picked up out of the channel when it collapses,” the report said.

“The most viable alternative for a port is to fund a preventative maintenance program with revenues generated by the port.

Port Mackenzie has opportunities to tap into; port staff will need to be expanded and properly resourced in order to capitalize on them.

Given the existing conditions at the Port, its staff size, and its governance it is unreasonable to expect that Port MacKenzie is capable of a concerted business development effort.

For the short term, “our recommendation is that the Port Commission be empowered as a decision-making body to which port staff report, and that Port Mackenzie hire additional employees focused primarily on business development, operations, and maintenance,” the consultants said.

“This would put Port Mackenzie into a posture to capture opportunities, which include those created by the pending Port of Alaska pier repairs and the state’s potential economic upturn,” the report said.

The Port District is comprised of about 9,033 acres situated on 14 square miles of usable land for development. There are two tenants in the district: Central Alaska Energy and Colaska Construction Company.

There is a 1,239-acre waterfront dependent zone and a 3,047-acre adjacent commercial port district. The Port has a deep water and shallow water dock which is designated as a barge dock. The deep-water dock is 1,200 feet long with an alongside depth of 60 feet at mean lower low water, which allows the port to handle very large vessels.

Also, the dredging that is needed at the Port of Alaska across Knik Arm is not needed at Port MacKenzie because strong tidal currents keeps glacial silt moving.

The strong current, however, can be a problem in ship handling even as it is an advantage in reducing silting, source familiar with Cook Inlet navigation have said.