PITCH FOR PORT

PALMER — Now is the time — during an economic slowdown — that the government should invest in new infrastructure to make transportation easier and spur future development.

That was the message delivered by former Anchorage mayor Rick Mystrom to convince members of the Greater Palmer Chamber of Commerce about the merits of building a rail spur to Port MacKenzie.

Mystrom, who is on a six-month talking tour for the Mat-Su Borough’s Economic Development Department, said Alaska is facing uncertainty. There is uncertainty surrounding energy costs, the future of the Trans-Alaska oil pipeline, construction of a natural gas pipeline and the future of oil and gas exploration.

This, added with a lack of diversification in the economy and lack of transportation infrastructure, makes now the right time to spend $200 million to connect the port with the Alaska Railroad system, Mystrom said.

A rail spur could take one of three potential routes to the port, he said. One route passes south of Big Lake, one connects to the existing line in Houston and one runs north past Willow. Mystrom said the Surface Transportation Board — a federal advisory agency — will make its recommendation in the next few days. A public comment period is running now until May 10.

Whatever route the spur takes, it will cut more than 140 miles off the trip freight trains now take to Seward. Additionally, trains loaded with heavy minerals have to split in half or employ another engine to make it up the grade at Moose Pass, Mystrom said.

The Seward port is not set up to load limestone — a mineral necessary for cement — onto freighter ships, he said. But limestone deposits in the Interior are predicted to be big enough to provide 15 percent of the entire country’s supply for the next 200 years. This is in addition to a cement factory planned for Fairbanks and “whatever is needed for the Susitna Dam, if that ever happens,” Mystrom said.

In addition to limestone, Mystrom said a rail spur would open up a 60-mile-wide corridor on either side of the tracks for natural resource extraction. Trains can then take these resources to the port, a facility that is going through its own expansion.

“Think of these two projects working together,” Mystrom said.

He pointed to the expansion of both the deep-water and the barge docks at Port MacKenzie. With a mean low tide almost twice as deep as the Port of Anchorage, Port MacKenzie will be able to handle some of the world’s largest ships. Mystrom said a 90-ton ship is docking in the port in June to test its capacity for deep-water ships.

A conveyor belt will allow the trains to unload almost directly on to the ships, and a loop at the end of the spur means trains wouldn’t have to turn around. Energy companies have already expressed interest in unloading 40-foot sections of pipe for the natural gas line at the port, Mystrom said. The pipes will be welded into 80-foot sections, coated, then sent north via the rail spur for a future gas line.

“The companies are saying this will reduce the cost of a major gas pipeline project by $100 million,” Mystrom said. “This is an opportunity for the legislature to show the pipeline companies they want to help out.”

Mystrom said the project can only go forward now with funding from the state Legislature. He asked the members of the audience to write or call the governor and local delegation to support the capital expense of $57 million this year and $150 million next year.

“The other option is to just put that money into the bank. Then you will have $40 billion (plus) $200 million instead of just $40 billion,” Mystrom said. “That will create one or two jobs maybe in Dallas of Chicago instead of the 3,500 jobs the rail spur would create in the Mat-Su.”

Contact Todd L. Disher at todd.disher@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.

For more information about the Port MacKenzie Rail Spur project, including the dates of future public hearings and the draft of the environmental impact statement, visit www.portmacrail.com.