Port of Alaska receives $68.7M federal grant to kick start 10-year rebuilding program

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – The Port of Alaska is benefiting from federal infrastructure funds with a not too long ago introduced award of $68.7 million in grant funds from the U.S. Division of Transportation.

Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson praised the work of Alaska’s congressional delegation for securing the funding and stated it comes at a crucial time.

“We’ve to recollect, 90% of the folks within the state get their meals and provides from these docks proper right here,” Bronson stated on a latest go to to the port. “If it fails structurally, we’re in actually massive hassle.”

Engineers say the ageing port was broken within the 2018 earthquake and would doubtless fail in one other massive occasion. The ten-year enchancment plan consists of changing the docks and terminals on the port.

However earlier than the work can start, the port wants to deal with one other difficulty the grant will assist pay for —eradicating a lot of the soil on the north finish of the port, which was a part of a failed growth undertaking.

Jim Jager, Exterior Affairs Director on the Port of Alaska, stated the priority is that the newly shaped land might liquify throughout an earthquake and take out the docks which are proper subsequent door.

“It was not constructed to create steady land,” Jager stated. “So it seems like land, smells like land, tastes like land. It’s not steady like land, and within the occasion of an earthquake, it should doubtless liquefy and begin to slide.”

Jager stated the federal funds, together with matching state funds, pays to take away a portion of the north extension, stabilize the remaining land and likewise take away a sheet pile wall that surrounds it. The work will even unlock house in order that cargo ships can dock on the north aspect of the port whereas work is being accomplished to interchange docks on the south aspect.

Jager stated section one of many north extension stabilization undertaking will start in April and is anticipated to take two years. All the dock alternative program is a 10-year undertaking that’s estimated to price between $1.8 billion and $2 billion {dollars} in whole.

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