The Importance of Rail Links to Port Mackenzie
Contributed by Stephen Wright
I’m Stephen Wright. I’m also a candidate for State Senate out here in the valley for District N. From our Borough website, Port Mackenzie is ideal for hauling material and commodities provides tide water access to interior of Alaska. One of things I want to do is to remind the assembly that we have built a terminal for Port Mackenzie. It is designed to streamline transport to the valley and Fairbanks this port is vital to interior Alaska as well and reduce the need for large semis on the Parks Highway. With the recent airport runway extension, we will be able to facilitate greater shipments to the interior. I feel something needs to happen as far as tourism goes as well. We built a passenger terminal to be used for passengers on the Great Alaska Railroad as it is now 100 years since the many miles of track were completed with the golden spike in Nenana. If we don’t complete the railroad, how are we going to use the terminal so that particular terminal will be great facilitate tourism and even cruise-ships.
Matanuska Borough is not only the gateway to Denali, but it is the gateway to the Borough. It is written on the terminal building if you go down there and look at the building. It says Port Mackenzie is the Gateway to Matanuska Borough, keep that in mind. It is a vital deep-water port for the future of Alaska. The railroad project is now more than halfway completed. Port Mackenzie is Alaska’s biggest deep-water port and it’s vital to our economy. It provides additional access. It could be easily used for tourism, greatly cutting the distance for Denali as well providing the needed competition with Anchorage. Anchorage Port has many problems, and it needs to be updated all the time where our deep-water port has the space and the depth to secure Interior and South centrals vital activities. The Anchorage port is failing, and it requires active dredging all the time. We can be very competitive and provide an alternate for the port in Anchorage which has limited storage space. We can be a bigger, better port than the port in Anchorage. It’s important to provide added capacity away from the Anchorage port, we can also reduce the carrying cost.
Port Mackenzie is Alaska’s best deep-water port. It’s important for our future. Like I said, for commodity, competition, tourism, and its gateway to our future so we need this (railroad project). It’s vital for natural resources state. As a natural resource’s development state, we need the infrastructure as needed to help us build into future and I can’t see better port than Port Mackenzie. With population expansion in south central commodity costs in interior Alaska we need this rail. The Matsu website states this rail extension, “It’s critical to interior of Alaska”, so this rail extension will help connect us with Calgary Alberta to Anchorage (A to A railway) or in other words A-to-PM railway. I call Alberta to Port Mackenzie because Anchorage Port is very limited in scope and ability. I will always support this rail extension it makes since, and it will help make Alaska Great and bring infrastructure to South Central and Interior Alaska.