Anchorage choses plan for redeveloping port

Port of Anchorage says improvements will make the port more resistant to earthquakes.    Anchorage has selected a plan for modernization of its port that will make it more resistant to earthquakes and give it the ability to accommodate larger ships.
   Dan Sullivan, mayor of the Alaskan city, presented the plan to the city’s assembly last month after choosing it among several that would have been more expensive.
   The Port of Anchorage has been working on a plan for renovating the port for 18 months after wresting control of the project from the federal government.
   In a lawsuit filed earlier this year, the city said the federal government botched a planned expansion, and is suing it in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims over what it says was the Maritime Administration’s “breach and complete abdication of its contractual responsibilities” as manager of a port improvement project. MarAd has moved to have the lawsuit dismissed.
   The city is now pursuing a scaled back improvement project that is designed to make the port more seismically sound.
   Lindsey Whitt, director of external affairs at the port, said every year the port is spending $1.5-3 million on repairs, putting cathodic protection on some of the 1,400 pilings at the port. This work is “really just a Band Aid—it does not make it any more sound,” she said.
   The port is planning a dock that will be located further from the shore so larger ships drawing water depths of up to 45 feet of can be accommodated. The dock will be widened and the gauge of the port’s container cranes, currently 38 feet, will be enlarged to 50 feet.
   The project should also reduce the amount of maintenance dredging needed at the port.
   Whether bigger ships will come to the port in the immediate future is not clear, but Whitt noted the project will be built for the next 75 years.
   The city said the project is expected to cost (with 80 percent confidence) $485 million. Whitt said the city intends to seek $350 million for the project from the state of Alaska.
   Both Horizon Lines, which is slated to be sold to Matson next year, and Totem Ocean Trailer Express call the port two times a week, and the port is also used by tankers and cement ships.
   Anchorage said 90 percent of the consumer goods for 85 percent of Alaska come through its port.