Rail spur to connect port to main line at Houston

PALMER — After more than 10 years of research and dreaming, supporters of a rail spur connecting Port MacKenzie to the main rail line through the Susitna Valley know the route the new line will travel.

With the release of the final Environmental Impact Statement by the Office of Environmental Analysis of the Surface Transportation Board, Mat-Su Borough and Alaska Railroad Corp. officials announced Friday the 32-mile rail extension will run just west of Big Lake and over Horseshoe Lake before hitting South Houston between the Parks Highway bridge over the Little Susitna River and the railroad overpass at about Mile 56 of the Parks Highway.

This route, estimated to cost about $219 million, will keep environmental impacts to a minimum and cause the fewest negative impacts to farmers and trail users in the Point MacKenzie area, officials said.

In terms of economic development for the state, borough and the city of Houston, the benefits outweigh the costs 2-to-1 by providing an estimated 3,000 construction and mining jobs and an estimated $300 million in royalties, taxes and fees each year, they said.

“This project is very important to the economic diversification of the state of Alaska, so this is a state project, not just a borough project,” Acting Borough Manager Elizabeth Gray said during a press conference Friday in Palmer. Her comments came after thanking Gov. Sean Parnell, the state Legislature, Sen. Mark Begich and Congressman Don Young for their support.

The completion of the EIS allows construction contracts for the first five miles of rail embankment to be advertised for bid in early April, funded with a legislative appropriation made last year. Parnell already has budgeted $20 million for the project over the next year, but another $35 million is needed from the state to construct an additional 12.8 miles of rail embankment next summer, according to Borough Public Affairs Director Patty Sullivan.

Alaska Railroad Project Manager Brian Lindamood said they hope to begin construction this summer.

Borough Assembly Member Cindy Bettine, who represents the Big Lake area, said officials from as far Fairbanks and Healy joined the borough in testifying for the additional funding during an Alaska Senate Finance Committee hearing last week. Fairbanks and Healy would directly benefit from the rail extension by allowing them to transport minerals from Alaska’s interior to Mat-Su’s deep-water port.

“The amount of involvement by so many different people was really impressive,” Bettine said. “The most beautiful thing about this is that we’re not spending local taxpayer dollars on this project. It’s all come through grants and the grants help pay for a portion of (borough officials’) salaries. That’s an important thing.”

Also key, Bettine believes, is the way everyone truly listened to residents’ concerns when the project went through numerous public hearings over the last few years. She said many of her constituents were worried about protecting recreational trails and farmland in the Point MacKenzie area, as well as wetlands and other wildlife habitat in the area.

Although the EIS states that the rail extension will still have some impact on wildlife and waterways, the chosen route minimizes those impacts as much as possible and avoids the sensitive cultural areas of the proposed Willow route. It also only affects one homeowner and zero businesses.

That homeowner, Roman Byler, rents out a 24-by-30 home on his 598-acre hay farm on Holstine Road, less than a mile from Point MacKenzie Road.

“They’ll take the home and about 120 acres with the new rail line,” Byler said Friday. “The more I thought about it, the less it bothered me as long as I receive just compensation.”

Byler said his son Dennis, of Byler Contracting, would have been affected much more if the eastern route had been chosen, so their glad the more central path was deemed the best.

“The east route would have gone clean through my son’s property,” he said, adding Dennis has a large hay farm next to his and will now be only about 1,500 feet from the tracks.

Overall, however, they’re happy about the project.

“I think it’s going to be good for the borough and hopefully help push the bridge,” Byler said. “We’d all like to see the bridge go in. It’s a 70-mile drive to Anchorage on the highway, but would only be 12 miles by the way the crow flies if the bridge was there.”

Point MacKenzie Community Council Vice President Toby Riddell, who lives in the Carpenter Lake area, said the chosen route was the one the council had supported.

His said the council had been concerned about ending up with a lot of new development on either side of the tracks, like in Wasilla, because it looked like the line would be too close to Point MacKenzie Road at one point.

“We think it’s pushed far enough away now it’s not going to impact our community nearly as severely as we thought,” said Riddell, who works in the borough maintenance department. “The far west route would have cut into a lot of the farm fields, so four years ago we recommended against that one.”

Houston Mayor Virgie Thompson said Friday she was disappointed the city wasn’t informed about the press conference, but was happy to hear Houston might benefit from having the rail come through their area.

“We’ll be looking forward to working with the state and the railroad and whatever it takes to help the economy of the city and the area,” Thompson said. “But I don’t know exactly what that impact will be yet because I haven’t seen the whole plan.”

Residents can learn more about the project at an Open House April 7, 6 to 8 p.m., at Evangelo’s Restaurant at 2530 E. Parks Highway in Wasilla. More information can be obtained at portmacrail.com or by calling Patty Sullivan at 745-9577.

Contact K.T. McKee at kate.McKee@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.