By Paul Scott Abbott, AJOTThe intermodal expansion project that bodes to more than double the size of the Port of Anchorage is unusual for a number of reasons, but the manner in which it is most precedent-setting is the fact that the US Maritime Administration is serving as lead federal agency in bringing it to fruition. Although MARAD has not taken such a role in past US port projects, the primary involvement of the US Department of Transportation unit in the Anchorage expansion already is being looked to as a model for port development efforts in Guam and Hawaii, according to Thomas J. Barrett, DOT deputy secretary. Barrett, a retired US Coast Guard vice admiral, in a keynote address Sept. 23 at the American Association of Port Authorities annual convention in Anchorage, added that MARAD also recently signed a similar agreement with the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority.
Barrett said DOT – and MARAD in particular – will “try to be more of a catalyst to improve port development.” William J. Sheffield, port director at the Port of Anchorage, said he has been pleased with how MARAD’s role has helped the Anchorage project advance. “For the Port of Anchorage, it’s worked like clockwork,” said Sheffield, who served as governor of Alaska from 1982 to 1986 and has been director of Anchorage’s municipal port since 2001. “Our relationship with MARAD has been very good,” Sheffield added. “They’ve been very good to work with. They’re the contractor, actually.” MARAD spearheads regulatory approval efforts, administers all project funding and hires those who are performing the development work in phases. Sheffield has had an opportunity the past week to showcase his port and its $700 million intermodal expansion project to Western Hemisphere port industry leaders, with the Port of Anchorage hosting the AAPA’s 97th annual convention, which included a Sept. 24 panel discussion of the project. Of $200 million spent on the project thus far, about half is from federal funds, 24% from Alaska state coffers and 26% from port profits and port debt funding. The Municipality of Anchorage and its citizens have no tax burden as a result. When the project, initiated in 2003, is complete in 2013, the existing 120-acre municipal port will have greatly enhanced road and railway connections, will be augmented with 135 acres of additional land for intermodal transportation and industrial uses and will see its contingent of working berths double from four and a half to nine, while water depth will be lowered from 35 feet to 45 feet. Stephen Boardman, chief of the US Army Corps of Engineers’ civil project management branch in Anchorage, noted that the Anchorage project also is unique in that the Corps of Engineers has been responsible for maintaining water depth right up to the docks. Boardman concurred with others involved with the project in citing MARAD’s lead role as a key in advancing the project, commenting, “It has stimulated and accelerated review, processing and development. “It’s a new concept,” Boardman added. “The teamwork between all parties has been extremely good and moved this project forward at a much quicker pace that it might otherwise have been.” Critical to the project advancing was the issuance by the Corps of Engineers in August 2007 of a Clean Water Act permit – a permit that might typically take seven to 10 years to obtain having been secured in four years. While the Anchorage port clearly is vital to Alaskans, handling 90% of goods entering the state, its designation by the US Department of Defense as a strategic port critical to national security also likely has hastened the expansion process. The port is proximate to the US Army’s Fort Richardson, as well as Elmendorf Air Force Base. In fact, the use in the port project of fill material derived from small hills on the Elmendorf site will reduce hazards for flight opera