AGC of Alaska
By Rindi White

Piles under Port of Alaska in need of serious repair, officials say

Below the waterline at the main port in Anchorage, a “slow-motion disaster” is taking place. The port, renamed the Port of Alaska in October to reflect the intermodal transport hub’s importance to the statewide economy, is on an irreversible path toward crippling corrosion, one that officials say will shut down the port in about 10 years if not addressed.

Temporary measures are being used to slow the damage, but port officials say that without a $700-plus-million modernization project, those temporary efforts will not materially extend the port’s lifespan.

There are 1,423 piles supporting the Port of Alaska. When installed, the piles were typically 24 inches in diameter and averaged 7/16-inch thick. The newest sections of the dock are more than 40 years old; most areas were built 50 or more years ago. The piles have lost up to three-quarters of their original thickness and likely will not withstand another significant earthquake, Port of Anchorage officials stated in an Oct. 20 presentation.

Read Full Story Here:
http://www.agcakroster.org/Page/104/risking_stability

Alaska Journal of Commerce
By: Elwood Brehmer

Anchorage municipal attorneys settled half of their tangled litigation over the long-failed Port of Anchorage expansion project but it was more of the same for port officials trying to drum up hundreds of millions of dollars for the scaled back but badly needed modernization plan.

In less than a week starting Jan. 26, municipal attorneys filed documents in U.S. District Court of Alaska announcing settlements with four defendants — CH2M, GeoEngineers Inc., Integrated Concepts and Research Corp., and PND Engineers Inc. — stemming from the lawsuit filed in early 2013 seeking damages for the failed construction project.

The municipality started resolving the case in June 2016 when it settled with MKB Constructors, a construction company that partnered with Quality Asphalt Pavement to install the PND’s proprietary Open Cell Sheet Pile dock design, which was at the heart of the court dispute.

Read the full story here:
http://www.alaskajournal.com/2017-12-20/year-review-port-project-king-cove-alaska-virgin-merger#.WjxRxt-nHtV

KTUU News
By Sean Maguire

An estimated 340 barrels of jet fuel spilled into a secondary containment area late Saturday at the ocean dock at the Port of Anchorage.

The containment system is believed to prevent a far worse scenario: the 18,000-plus gallons of fuel spilling into icy Cook Inlet, where a cleanup would have been far more difficult if not impossible.

With the system in place, already, fifteen thousand gallons of oil and water mixture has been recovered.

Candice Barber, a spokesperson for the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, says the terminal is located "approximately 560 feet from the waters of Cook Inlet."

Read Full Story Here:
http://www.ktuu.com/content/news/340-barrels-of-jet-fuel-spills-into-secondary-containment-area-at-the-Port-of-Anchorage-458705493.html

Alaska Journal of Commerce
By:  Elwood Brehmer

The Port of Anchorage is no more.

No, it did not slough off into Cook Inlet overnight, though parts of it have.

Rather, the Anchorage Assembly changed its name to the Port of Alaska on Oct. 24, a gesture intended to emphasize the importance of the ailing infrastructure to all of Alaska, not just its largest city.

Regardless of the name, the price tag to keep it in service for the next 75 years remains at upwards of $700 million.

Read the full story here:
http://www.alaskajournal.com/2017-11-09/port-gets-new-name-problems-remain#.WgkVeWhSztV

Alaska Dispatch News
Author: Devin Kelly

The Port of Anchorage is now called the Port of Alaska, after a Tuesday night vote by the city Assembly.

The measure sends a message to state lawmakers, said sponsor and Anchorage Assembly chair Dick Traini. Anchorage has been asking the state to help pay for upgrades to the port docks, which, after a failed expansion project, are being crippled by corrosion.

With the state facing a massive budget crisis, Mayor Ethan Berkowitz and his deputies have been weighing other options to pay for what's now a "modernization" project, like privatizing some parts of the port. At the same time, city officials are still trying to make the case that the port is a statewide asset, with the vast majority of Alaska's dry goods coming through the docks.

Read Full Story Here:
https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/2017/10/24/in-symbolic-step-port-of-anchorage-renamed-port-of-alaska/

Public Radio International
By Jason Margolis

Alaska has warmed more than twice as fast as rest of the country — winters in Anchorage are 6 degrees warmer than they were 70 years ago. And that’s impacting life there in many ways, from commerce to recreation to the city’s ability to take in climate migrants.

Consider commerce. The Port of Anchorage is a lifeline for Alaska.

“Ninety percent of all inbound cargo coming into Alaska comes via marine vessel; about half of that cargo comes through the Port of Anchorage,” says Jim Jager, the port’s spokesperson.

The port has a big problem: Its steel pilings are crumbling, being eaten away by microbes.

Read Full Story Here:
https://www.pri.org/stories/2017-10-03/anchorage-confronting-more-rapid-climate-change-has-few-dollars-address-it

Anchorage Press
By: TIM BRADNER

Anchorage’s port, which serves 85 percent of the state’s population, is falling apart.

Corrosion is eating away at steel piles installed that support the docks at the Port of Anchorage. Unless the piling and docks are rebuilt, and there are 1,423 piles, the port will no longer be structurally safe in 10 years, said Jim Jager, the Port of Anchorage’s external affairs manager.

In fact an earthquake, which can happen at any time, would cause the port to collapse now, cutting off supplies of groceries, fuel and other needed commodities to Southcentral and Interior Alaska communities, Jager told the Resource Development Council, an Anchorage business group, in a Sept. 22 briefing.

Read full story here:
http://www.anchoragepress.com/news/port-in-peril-million-needed-for-repairs-to-state-lifeline/article_50383606-a318-11e7-b0da-23ea812c479d.html

KTUU News
By Dan Carpenter

Anchorage (KTUU) An Anchorage Assembly member is seeking to change the name of the Port of Anchorage to the Port of Alaska. Assembly Chair Dick Traini says his motivation for introducing the ordnance next week is to secure funding to make necessary repairs.

“The port of Anchorage is already the port of Alaska,” said Traini, referencing data provided by the port which says the goods that cross its dock service 85% of the state population.

Inspections of the nearly 60 year old port by engineers have found it’s at risk of falling into Cook Inlet . Port Director Steve Ribuffo says the total repair cost could reach $700,000,000.

Read Full Story Here:
http://www.ktuu.com/content/news/Port-of-Anchorage-name-change-proposed-443352993.html

World Cement
By: Rebecca Bowden

The majority of freight and supplies for the state of Alaska enters through the Port of Anchorage. One of these products is bulk powdered cement.

A number of years ago, Alaska Basic Industries, a joint venture between CalPortland and Alaska Sand & Gravel, the terminal owner and operator, looked at various options to increase the storage capacity at the Port of Anchorage. The existing terminal had silo storage that was inadequate to hold the entire cargo of a single cement ship, without either light loading the ship or using offsite storage. The import situation in Anchorage is further complicated in the winter months, due to the presence of ice on the Knik Arm (the location of the Port of Anchorage): the ships that are used for transporting cement are not built to travel through the ice present on the Knik Arm during the winter months.

Read Full Story Here:
https://www.worldcement.com/special-reports/28082017/finding-solid-ground/

Alaska Dispatch News
By: Devin Kelly

In about 10 years, the docks at the Port of Anchorage will start closing, crippled by corrosion, unless major repairs are made.

But with the clock ticking, it's still unclear who will pay for it, and how.

Without a big injection of state or federal funding, officials say the port, which opened in 1961, is more likely to resort to a tariff that leads to higher prices on the vast majority of consumer products that come into the state. That means everyone would pay a little more for a gallon of milk, a loaf of bread, a car or a sheet of plywood.

Read Full Story Here:
https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/anchorage/2017/08/14/anchorages-port-is-already-falling-apart-with-the-clock-ticking-whats-the-plan/