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Sheffield, director of the port since mid-2001, has been tasked with developing a master plan for the expansion. Plans include an expansion of the current dock, adding new equipment, construction of a new multi-purpose dock, a barge loading facility, a storage facility and road and rail access.
"It has been an experience garnering funds to rebuild the port," said Sheffield.
Before the process can proceed, officials at the port need to prove that the dock construction could withstand a major earthquake. To accomplish this, geotechnical studies will be completed this summer to establish the strength of the soil base under the Knik Arm. Sheffield and Anchorage Mayor George Wuerch have appointed a panel of 10 geotechnical engineers to study the problem and make recommendations.
"We've got a lot of money in our pockets to start out with," he said.
About $56 million, to be more precise.
Sheffield pointed out that Anchorage is a strategic location for international shipping. However, the port, built in 1960, must expand and grow to keep up with changes in the industry. For instance, 20-foot shipping containers used to be the norm. Now, that size has more than doubled, with the average container measuring 40-53 feet. The new expansion to the port will replace the 38-foot cranes with a 100-foot crane to facilitate larger containers.
The port will also expand to accommodate 1,000-foot-long vessels.
Sheffield said construction of the port expansion project would start next summer and likely last through 2008. The railroad track and road work may start this year.
Two engineering firms have submitted proposals for development of the port. The choice between the two is pending the outcome of the geotechnical studies.
The firm of Peratrovich Nottingham & Drage Inc. submitted a design which uses technology the company developed in 1980. The design, called an open-cell system, uses sheet pile membranes to create a bulkhead for holding compacted gravel. The plan for the Anchorage port calls for expansion 400 feet seaward of the existing dock, incorporating some 9 million tons of fill to create a nearly mile-long dock. Some 83 acres would be added to the port's existing 100-acre footprint.
Most recently, the open-cell technology was used to construct a 1,100-foot-long dock at the Williams Petroleum Terminal near the Port of Anchorage.
The engineering firm originally tasked with creating a plan, Tryck Nyman Hayes Inc., has developed a pile-supported dock design. Nearly all of the major West Coast ports use pile-supported docks, according to John Daley, project engineer with Tryck Nyman Hayes.
The port serves 80 percent of Alaska. Currently, 3.9 million tons of commodities move through the port each year, including all the fuel for the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport and Elmendorf Air Force Base. According to Wuerch, activity at the port is expected to double over the next 20 years.
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