Mat-Su grows up: valley construction projects lay foundation for future development.

• Author: Kalytiak, Tracy
• Position: BUILDING ALASKA

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A $300 million Port MacKenzie rail line-extension project, $240 million prison, $25 million Valley Hospital-Palmer courthouse renovation and multimillion dollar overhauls of Trunk and Burma roads are headliner construction projects that are either under way or soon will be in the Mat-Su.

Two of those projects--the rail extension and Burma Road improvements--are components of the Matanuska Susitna Borough's effort to mold the current Port MacKenzie into an economic powerhouse for the area, with rail and enhanced road access. The hospital renovation will consolidate a bevy of state offices into one building, and the realignment of Trunk Road will provide the growing Mat-Su area with a straighter, safer north-south traffic artery.

PORT MACKENZIE

Mat-Su Borough officials have long hoped to convert Port MacKenzie into an intermodal and bulk material resources export and import facility. This facility could provide freight services from the port to Interior Alaska and net $6.3 billion worth of benefit to the state from new hard-rock mineral mining, such as copper, nickel and zinc. It will also provide reduced transportation costs for limestone and coal mining and timber resources exported from the Interior because of the shorter distance to tidewater.

Now, the borough is collaborating with the Alaska Railroad on the rail portion of that plan, a multi-phase effort that will cost in the neighborhood of $300 million when complete.

The U.S. Department of Transportation's Surface Transportation Board is expected to finish its $10 million environmental review of the proposed 30- to 45-mile rail extension next month. Engineering and design began last year and are continuing this year, with construction expected to take place between 2010 and 2012.

The second phase of the project received $17.5 million in the State's 2009 capital budget. That money will be used to build a road that will someday be converted to a rail embankment and rail reserve. The bid opening for the clearing contract was scheduled to take place at press time and construction is expected to begin in early May.

"It's an embankment that will initially be used for bulk resource truck traffic," said Brad Sworts, the Mat-Su Borough's transportation and environmental planning manager. "Once we receive funding for the rest of the rail project, we'll be able to put rails down."

Completion of that second phase of the project is anticipated to be in winter 2009.

Borough officials included $57 million for the rail project on a $170 million wish list of local projects they hoped would receive funding from federal stimulus dollars destined for Alaska. The $57 million on the Borough's stimulus wish list would go toward the next section of rail, referred to as "Mac East" or "Mac West."

After that, construction would begin on the fourth phase of the project, which involves building one of three rail routes that are now under consideration in the environmental impact statement. One possible route would go through Willow, another would swing west and north of Big Lake and come into the main Alaska Railroad line near Houston, and the third possible route would swing south of Big Lake, cross Hollywood Road and tie into the railroad main line south of the Parks Highway intersection with Big Lake Road. The Willow route would be more expensive, Sworts said, because it is longer and involves construction of several fiver bridges.

"The EIS should give us a preferred...