By: Elwood Brehmer
Alaska Journal of Commerce
The traditionally mundane process of updating the fees charged to use the Port of Alaska has turned contentious as city officials search for ways to pay for repairing the ailing docks.
Anchorage Municipal Manager Bill Falsey told the Anchorage Assembly’s Enterprise and Utility Oversight Committee Oct. 17 that port managers had come up with four basic options for updating the tariffs levied on the goods and materials that cross the docks at the port.
“Before the year’s end we have to have something in place. That means big decisions have to be made,” Falsey said to Assembly members, noting the current tariff schedule is set to expire Dec. 31.
Read full story here:
https://www.alaskajournal.com/2019-10-23/port-commission-tackles-tariff-schedule-year-end-deadline
By: Darren Prokop
Logistics in Alaska can be both amazing and frustrating. Alaska is the most expansive and diverse logistics laboratory in the United States. Take the largest state in the nation, yet the third least-populated, spread the people throughout the state, support them with only basic infrastructure having little to no redundancies, separate them from the rest of civilization by the vast Northern Pacific Ocean and the expanses of the Yukon Wilderness, and toss in the prevalence of bitter winter cold, earthquakes and volcanoes. Considering all this, one is amazed at the creature comforts Alaskans have access to and have grown used to.
Read Full Commentary Here:
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/commentary-port-of-alaskas-resiliency-puzzle
KTUU News
By Derek Minemyer
Outlining a path to the future for the Port of Alaska -- a recent Municipal report revealing how long improvements could take, how much they'll cost … and who's going to pay for them.
The price tag has gone up almost 300 percent since 2014: Originally estimated at $485 million, the cost of the Port of Alaska Modernization Project is now $1.932 billion. But, authors of the new Municipal report say costs for upgrades to Alaska's largest cargo port will eventually pay for themselves in money saved.
"When the program cost was presented as increasing from $485 million to $1.9 billion this year, it raised widespread concern about how can we afford this program?" said co-chair of the Anchorage Assembly Enterprise and Utility Oversight Committee Suzanne LaFrance.
The question of "How much will I, the consumer, have to pay for these repairs?" changes with every new analysis. But, LaFrance makes it clear that if this project is to be properly financed it’s going to take support from residents, port users, businesses, state and federal funders.
Read Full Story Here:
https://www.ktuu.com/content/news/New-report-outlines-path-forward-for-Port-Modernization-Project-561938901.html
ARCTIC WARRIOR
By Senior Airman Jonathan Valdes Montijo
The 673d Logistics Readiness Squadron tested a tanker truck offload facility at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, July 25, 2019.
The purpose of this facility is to provide a secondary means to receive JP-8 (aircraft fuel) in the event JBER’s fuel pipeline is out of service due to maintenance, damage or natural disaster.
Prior to 2018, JBER had only one means to receive fuel and a pipeline from the Port of Alaska to JBER.
Read Full Story Here:
https://www.frontiersman.com/arctic-warrior/tank-truck-offload-facility-gives-more-readiness-to-jber/article_ba1ef1d6-b95f-11e9-b826-03803955d2bd.html
By FAMILY OF MARION DAVIS
Our beloved husband, father, and grandfather passed away at St. Vincent Providence Hospital in Portland, Oregon on July 18, 2019. Marion was born on Sept. 18, 1948, in Greenville, Mississippi to Emett George Davis and Royce Christine Davis, the youngest of four siblings. His father was a carpenter, and Marion often followed him around as a young boy, watching and learning. He was able to do almost anything with his hands, and he did beautiful tile work and carpentry, as well as fixing plumbing and electrical issues. Marion's father died when he was young, and it was then that he began making trips to Anchorage to stay with his sister Christine Moesh during the summers.
Click Here to Continue Reading:
https://www.kucb.org/post/memoriam-marion-gibson-davis#stream/0
KTUU News
By Derek Minemyer
The Anchorage Assembly voted 8-3 to award a contract bid of $42 million for Pacific Pile & Marine to upgrade the Petroleum Cement Terminal at the Port of Alaska.
Several Port of Alaska facilities have been used beyond their planned service life and engineers say that the port, through which roughly 90 percent of Alaska's merchandise goods pass, is at "imminent risk of failure within the next five to ten years," according to an assembly resolution.
David Gamez of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Alaska, said that repairs are necessary to survive another shake like what occurred on November 30.
Read Full Story Here:
https://www.ktuu.com/content/news/Anchorage-Assembly-gives-green-light-to-first-port-update-project-513423831.html
Alaska Journal of Commerce
By: Elwood Brehmer
The Anchorage Assembly has approved funding to start a total rebuild to the docks at the city’s beleaguered port a decade after construction problems halted prior efforts to upgrade the essential infrastructure.
An 8-3 Assembly vote at a July 30 special meeting allows city officials to award a $42.1 million contract to Seattle-based Pacific Pile and Marine to build the first phase of a new, roughly $220 million petroleum and cement terminal at the city-owned Port of Alaska.
Read Full Story Here:
http://www.alaskajournal.com/2019-07-31/anchorage-assembly-approves-42m-contract-first-new-port-dock
KTUU News
By Hank Davis
During a special meeting on Tuesday, members of the Anchorage Assembly will be tasked with finally making a major decision about whether or not to move forward with the construction of an all-new, 40 million dollar petroleum and concrete terminal (PCT) at the Port of Alaska.
The PCT is a major key to executing the long-discussed "Port Modernization Program," which is a sorely needed initiative to restore Anchorage's aging docks; however, the assembly has multiple factors to consider before taking a final vote.
Even with three state grants worth just under $50 million, an additional $100 million would be needed to complete the PCT -- only the first of multiple operations needed to bring the Port of Alaska back up to modern-day shipping standards.
Read Full Story Here:
https://www.ktuu.com/content/news/Assembly-preparing-to-make-major-decisions-on-Port-of-Alaskas-future-513369981.html
KTUU News
The (PCT) petroleum and concrete terminal would be phase on of a plan to bring the Port of Alaska back up to modern shipping standards. (KTUU)
Watch Video Here:
https://www.ktuu.com/video/?vid=513370222
Alaska Journal of Commerce
By: Elwood Brehmer
The primary users of Anchorage’s beleaguered port want city officials to delay the first major rehabilitation work at the port in years while port leaders continue to discover earthquake damage to critical infrastructure.
The eight companies that make up the informal “Port of Alaska Users Group” sent similar letters to Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz June 28 and members of the Anchorage Assembly July 12 urging them to stop advancing work to build a new petroleum and cement terminal.
They contend the municipality’s plan to start building the roughly $220 million petroleum and cement import terminal, or PCT, without having a way to pay for all of it would leave the city with a “trestle to nowhere,” according to the July 12 letter to the Assembly, and could invite tariff increases that would impact business at Anchorage’s other logistics hub.
Read Full Story Here:
http://www.alaskajournal.com/2019-07-17/more-quake-damage-adds-troubles-port-alaska
