Proposed rail routes enough to rile residents

MAT-SU — Valley residents have one more opportunity to help determine the route of the Alaska Railroad’s new spur to Port MacKenzie.

Gatherings in Big Lake, Wasilla, Willow and Knik this week were well-attended, said Patty Sullivan, project spokeswoman for the Mat-Su Borough.

Tonight the venue is 6 to 8 at Houston Middle School, 12801 Hawk Lane, where consultants will post aerial maps, talk to residents one-on-one or in groups and watch a Power Point presentation detailing the project. There were 120 in the audience Tuesday in Big Lake, and Willow’s Wednesday session drew about 90 people, many with concerns about how a new spur would affect recreational trails.

Proposed rail routes are between 28 and 45 miles long and — as proposed in concept — and could start in Houston, Big Lake or Willow.

Sullivan said many at Wednesday’s Willow meeting expressed concern about area trails and maintaining those connections.

Borough Manager John Duffy attended Monday’s Wasilla meeting to remind the crowd of about 70 people that the $300 million project will boost exports of Alaska minerals and help the state and Borough economies.

“Our country is a net importer of cement,” Duffy said. “If this rail link is built we could end up being the supplier for 5 percent of our nation's cement.”

Duffy was also impressed by the Big Lake turnout and the level of interest he observed in Willow.

“We received applause when our presentation was over,” he said of the Willow crowd. “There wasn’t any consensus, but that wasn’t the purpose of the meeting.”

The purpose was to gather information, he said.

The meetings are part of a necessary environmental assessment phase of a joint project between the railroad and the Borough. The Borough and railroad agreed in June to work together on creating a new line and the state kicked in $10 million for the study. The environmental report and the route plans require federal approval from the Surface Transportation Board.

Railroad project manager Brian Lindamood expects to present a route proposal by the end of December. A separate federal process will go forward and the plans could receive approval as soon as 2009. The railroad and Borough hope trains can roll along the new spur — whatever its route — by 2012.

The project will not be affected by the Agrium decision to close its Kenai fertilizer facility, railroad and Borough officials have said. That plant, if converted from natural gas, would be a major consumer of coal expected to roll down the tracks from Interior producers and shipped through Port MacKenzie.

MSB and ARRC signed an agreement in June to work together on the Port MacKenzie Rail Extension Project. Construction of a new rail line requires federal approval.

Lindamood tells each audience the rail corridors are concepts, and the project will try to avoid or minimize direct impacts to property.

Sullivan said the meetings have been helpful for consultants, one of whom told her, “Every night I hear something I wasn’t aware of.”

In Willow, one activist offered to take a large map to seniors and others who could not make Wednesday’s meeting. People can make notes on maps the Borough brings to these sessions to denote the locations of trails, runways and other land uses.

More information is available on the project’s Web site, www.portmacrail.com.

Contact John R. Moses at 352-2270 or john.moses@frontiersman.com.