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In 1992, the concept of new transportation links to Point MacKenzie from various parts of the Matanuska Valley drew little support and much protest. Reintroduced recently, the idea is meeting a similar reception.
Matanuska-Susitna Borough officials believe a new rail spur from the existing Alaska railroad mainline along with better highway access to Port MacKenzie would pay big dividends through the shipment of and access to coal, timber, gravel and petroleum.
But a new transportation corridor across Cook Inlet from Anchorage also would mean a railroad and perhaps a highway near folks who want no such infrastructure.
"It's a NIMBY (not in my back yard) thing," said Jim Swing, the Matanuska-Susitna Borough's public works director.
"There is a lot of buildup in the Big Lake area by people concerned about living conditions and recreational use out there."
The 10-year-old study focused on several transportation corridors mainly to the east of the Little Su River, between Point MacKenzie and Houston.
That area has swelled in population over the last decade and borough officials expect even more opposition from residents there, Swing said.
With $400,000 in federal money, the borough has hired Anchorage-based engineering firm Tryck Nyman Hayes to restudy the transportation routes. The amended study identifying a preferred route is slated for completion in February.
Swing said the route being looked at with greater interest now is a rail spur on the west side of the Little Su River that would link in with Alaska Railroad Corp.'s mainline near Willow.
"There are a lot less people on the west side of the Little Su," Swing said. "It would actually go through virgin ground."
Port MacKenzie opened last spring for limited operations. Some 4.4 million pounds of cargo were exported during the 2001 summer shipping season, including more than 40 homes built by Alaska Manufacturing Contractors, the first and only tenant to operate at the port.
The construction of the homes built at Point MacKenzie and shipped to the Bush generated some $8 million in gross revenues, the same amount it cost to build the facility, said Marc Van Dongen, Port MacKenzie port director.
Van Dongen said transportation access to the port, especially rail, would help provide a sustained and strong economy for the Mat-Su borough, currently the fastest growing region in the state with an annual growth rate of more than 3 percent.
The new transportation corridor would also open up land in the Matanuska Valley for development, he said.
Van Dongen points out that Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, chairman of the powerful Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, is committed to funding a road and rail bridge between Anchorage and Point MacKenzie, a project that has a price tag of more than $1 billion, according to some estimates.
"That's not a lot of money or a big project on a national scale," Van Dongen said.
The Knik Arm crossing linked with a rail spur to the Alaska Railroad's mainline, 33 miles away to Houston or 40 miles to Willow, has too many benefits to ignore, including lessening train traffic in Wasilla, Palmer, Eagle River, Elmendorf Air Force Base and north Anchorage, Van Dongen said.
"It would get the railroad out of several communities and provide a more direct, shorter line to Fairbanks," Van Dongen said.
The route would save the Alaska Railroad 24 miles one-way in its fuel-shipping operations between North Pole and Anchorage, Van Dongen said.
"It will save them time and money having faster trains," Van Dongen said.
The railroad has not taken a position on any additional rail spur being considered by Mat-Su borough officials, said Patrick Flynn, Alaska Railroad spokesman.
A new highway from the port also would lessen traffic on the Glenn Highway, already the busiest in the state where more than 8,000 people commute daily between the Mat-Su area and Anchorage, according to state statistics.
"It would be quicker and cheaper for truckers, and safer for commuters," Van Dongen said.
Van Dongen said he understands the opposition from people in the Big Lake, Willow and Houston areas who don't want increased vehicle traffic or a railroad running nearby.
"I don't blame them," Van Dongen said.
But he said with Anchorage starved for land, it's inevitable new road and rail will be built someday, kind of a manifest destiny for the Matanuska-Susitna area.
"Maybe it will take 10 years, maybe 30 years," Van Dongen said of rail and highway corridors to the new port at Point MacKenzie. "But I'll bet anything it's going to happen and we need to be planning for it."
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