Port progresses

PORT MACKENZIE -- "Looking out at this view of Anchorage is really something spectacular!"

The words of U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski summed up the comments of several who attended the groundbreaking ceremony of the Port MacKenzie deep-draft dock Wednesday afternoon.

A crowd of about 100 bustled around the existing barge dock, capturing with cameras the view of Anchorage's skyline, the off-loading of heavy materials for the port construction and fighter jets flying running exercises over the site.

A groundbreaking in name only, the deep-draft dock is already well on its way to completion. The project is being funded by a $10 million bond approved by borough voters last October. Mat-Su Borough Port Director Marc Van Dongen said construction on the extended dock is coming along at a good pace.

Shipping delays caused first by a steel shortage, then a rail-transportation shortage and, more recently, an over-the-road truckers' strike, served to delay movement of steel piling from steel yards in Texas to a galvanizing plant in Portland, Ore.

Van Dongen said the second of three barges arrived at 10 p.m. Tuesday, and will spend three days at the site being unloaded. The third barge is scheduled to arrive during the first few days of September, Van Dongen said, and will provide the rest of the materials needed to complete the dock.

There is a chance, he said, that a few of the remaining 46 piles needed to complete the dock may not be ready in time for shipping, which could cause the project to run over into the spring.

If that happens, Van Dongen said, the crew at the port will complete this season as much of the actual dock area at the end of the trestle as possible -- enough for NPI LLC to install and begin using the conveyor system it will use to transfer wood chips, sand and gravel to waiting barges.

Terry Nininger, head of NPI, said if the steel arrives on time, his company could have a load of wood chips to ship by Nov. 15. The company is currently completing work on a five-acre pad that will hold the chips. Nininger said his crew has started installing the conveyor system, and is waiting for shipments of the system's components to arrive from fabricators in Phoenix, Ariz.

When the components arrive, Nininger said, his crew will work to extend the conveyor first to the barge dock, then out to the deep-water dock even as construction on that component proceeds. By September, he said, he hopes to be able to deliver rock and other material to the face of the barge dock.

Former Mat-Su Borough Assembly Member Jay Nolfi said she was very pleased to attend the groundbreaking ceremony.

She was among the first to champion the dock project, and said the desire to build the dock began about 20 years ago, when assembly members were looking for new avenues of economic development.

"It was because of the natural resources," Nolfi said, referring to the abundant sources of gravel, timber and other natural resources available in the Valley. "This was an area just made for commerce."

Nolfi said it's likely the dock was considered earlier, by entrepreneur Ken Hinchey, who was one of the first to begin talking about building a causeway between Anchorage and Point MacKenzie.

"He worked and worked to try to get a causeway," Nolfi said, "and everybody laughed at him."

Today, she said, it's impressive to be able to have lunch on the Mat-Su Borough's barge dock, and celebrate the extension of a second dock to deep water. She said she's looking forward to the day the dock becomes a thriving shipping port.

"The important thing is, it will create jobs," Nolfi said.

It will create not only jobs, but more revenue for the Mat-Su Borough, Van Dongen said.

As soon as shipping by NPI begins, he said, the borough will begin collecting wharfage and docking fees.

And, he said, the borough has about 40 million tons of sand and gravel available at the port site that can be mined on a contractual basis and shipped elsewhere in Alaska.

Tapping into that gravel, he said, will generate more money for the borough, in the form of royalties. The rate of those royalties, Van Dongen said, has not yet been determined, but he's optimistic.

"If it winds up at $1 per ton, that's $40 million in revenue over the period of 20 years, just to mine it," Van Dongen said. On top of that, he said, each boat that is loaded with gravel will be charged wharfage and docking fees. But those shipments won't take place until after the dock is complete.

"We're still in infancy," Van Dongen said. "We're still building the dock. By the end of November, we expect it to be complete."

Contact Rindi White at rindi.white@frontiersman.com.