Feelings mixed on proposed railroad extension
Published Saturday, January 10, 2009
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Stumble It!FAIRBANKS — Delta Junction falls, in size, between the smaller towns in Interior Alaska and the bigger communities like North Pole and Fairbanks.
The community, which has a population of roughly 5,000 when the surrounding school district is counted, is supported largely by a handful of industries and major landholders — farmers, the Army and the Pogo gold mine.
But for years, many have kept one eye on a project that would bring with it significant implications — the state railroad’s proposal to extend track 80 miles to the Army’s Fort Greely, which sits just outside the city.
Local business leaders say it would change things there for good, through lower shipping costs and a new route for tourism.
“I’ve lived here 20 years, and it’s always been a topic for 20 years,” said Courtney Durham, a real estate agent and president of the city’s chamber of commerce. “For Delta, it’s always been kind of the daylight at the end of the tunnel.”
However, questions remain regarding how and when the $700 million-plus project, aimed largely at benefiting Greely and its key role in the national missile-defense system, might come together. The railroad’s plan has thus evolved to focus on first nailing down plans for the extension project’s key piece — a bridge, more than a half-mile long built to handle both vehicles and trains, across the Tanana River aimed at reaching 1 million acres of military training grounds.
Supporters say that project alone would help cement the Army’s presence in Interior Alaska for years to come and decrease the likelihood that the Army would reduce troops in the near future.
“It really does start to anchor Fort Wainwright as a premier training ground for their operations,” railroad chairman John Binkley said of another military post in Interior Alaska, home of an Army Stryker brigade. “And those are becoming more scarce around the world for the military.”
Some neighbors, including Salcha and Eielson Farm Road, worry about how the proposed extension project could impact them. They will get a chance to weigh in formally when a transportation board leading the project’s federal environmental review visits Interior Alaska this week.
A complex project
The railroad is looking to build the bridge in the flood-prone community of Salcha.
Some residents there are less than thrilled with the proposal, said Carolyn Lincoln, who watched floodwaters wash her house away four decades ago. Lincoln said she grew wary last year when subcontractors started to study a project that would mean significant changes to the riverbanks on both sides of the Tanana.
The river is physically dynamic — it winds and braids, shifting every few years. Lincoln, president of Salcha Seniors, said she’s interested to see whether the bridge builders can present convincing designs for stabilizing the riverbank.
“They can either be the good guys or they can wind up being the big bad wolves,” she said of the railroad. “We’ll see.”
It was the prospect of extra flood-control that led local officials in December to highlight the project during their annual winter pitch to state lawmakers for help with construction projects. Borough Mayor Jim Whitaker and the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly put the bridge project on their annual wish-list to Juneau, asking for $40 million. Railroad officials say they’ve already secured enough money from the Department of Defense — more than $100 million — to begin construction on the bridge, possibly as early as 2010. Borough officials suggested the state contribute partly to help control future floods by way of stronger, reinforced riverbanks.
Whether a bridge crosses at Salcha, however, is yet to be determined. The transportation board leading the ongoing environmental review also is considering, through its tentative environmental impact statement, the option of a crossing farther southeast of Salcha.
The current manifestation of the proposed 80-mile extension was born largely to help the Army access training ground south of the Tanana River and eventually to ship supplies to and from Fort Greely. It also has been eyed as a commuter link for Delta and Greely personnel.
Environmental consultants acknowledge the expansion would have “moderate impacts” to fisheries and habitat. The area is one of the most intensely managed of all the game units across Alaska, with a high moose population, said Jim Durst, a habitat specialist at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. He said state biologists will look to ensure moose can cross an extended railroad corridor freely and minimize moose-train strikes.
“In other parts of the state, effects on moose from the railroad have been of significant concern,” Durst said. He added that state biologists also will closely look to see how the proposed extension might impact fish habitat — the main Tanana river and its tributaries host salmon and grayling, among other species of fish.
The upsides
At the eastern end of all that environmental review is Delta, a town with its own thoughts on the project. For decades, residents have heard talk of a future connection to the railroad line, which currently crosses through more than a dozen communities on its way from Seward to North Pole.
The extension would carry track to within 200 miles of the Canada border, and railroad officials said the project always has been discussed in the context of a longer connection with the rest of the continent.
A change in transportation costs could improve Delta’s attractiveness to investors. The Pogo gold mine is scheduled to operate through 2016. General manager Larry Davey said anything that would lower shipping costs can only improve chances that the mine could keep producing beyond its tentative expiration date.
Durham said property owners view the potential short-term benefits of a railroad construction project in the same light as that of the other long-discussed proposal — the trans-Alaska natural gas pipeline. She said both construction projects would fill now-vacant apartments and industrial space for the life of their respective construction seasons.
Beyond Delta, many have traditionally viewed a further 1,000-mile extension of train track to Canada as a major benefit to industries throughout Alaska.
Former Gov. Frank Murkowski, who worked to advance studies of a proposed cross-continental rail connection as governor and, prior to that, as a U.S. senator, said expanded rail access historically has been viewed as key — along with a natural gas pipeline — to the possible creation of a petrochemical industry in Alaska. He said if the line is ever extended to Delta, the big question will be whether public officials explore the economic benefits of a full-fledged connection to Canada.
As governor, Murkowski unsuccessfully proposed spending $50 million to kick-start the environmental permitting process for an Alaska-Canada rail link, a project that, according to University of Alaska Fairbanks geological engineering professor Paul Metz, who has studied the proposal, would cost more than $10 billion to build.
Murkowski said by phone Wednesday that a significant investment now from the military toward the 80-mile extension project justifies state investment in the latter proposal.
“I don’t think we can pass up an opportunity to look at this,” he said.
Community Discussion
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This is a long over due project for the Alaska Rail Road. I believe that it was 1919 when the Alaska Rail Road construction "tent city" of Anchorage got it's start. And that construction made it possible for more than a stern wheel trip up the Yukon and Tanana Rivers to get to Fairbanks. Aren't them "Gandy Dancers" done driving spikes yet? There is track to be lay, because 2019 isn't that far away?
What a way to revitalize Delta Junction/ Ft Greeley.
Seven hundred million for eighty miles of railroad. Has anyone asked why? But I guess all those "studys" have to line someones pockets before the real work begins. At this rate of progress the RR will give way to space ships in the year 2290
There is a PATTERN LANGUAGE expressed in Architecture when humans "conquer wilderness".
LOOK AT WHAT HUMANS HAVE DONE SO FAR...
Look at what humans have done so far to Planet Earth.
...it's easy to see, grasp, visualize using powerful tools like GoogleEarth.
It's important to stop and take a big breath of wilderness air before we totally allow the rest of the "human ant colony" to chew Alaska into little bits.
Herding Cats.......
Infrastructure Architecture and Design must express a depth of forethought that reaches 110% into each and every compartment of nature-&-need.
..the process of contemplating this is an awe inspiring journey self-discovery.
From saving the moose/caribou/fish/bird populations,,, to mitigating the intractable fungal-psychosis of extraterrestrial-militarism [runamuck reform-skool].....
...under 3000words here,
setting the lofty elocution aside,
and cutting to the chase...
---------do this first---------
...dredge a simple carefully sized channel in the Tanana River for flood control and barge navigation.
Use the dredge spoils to build a levee on the north side of the river.
Put your silly railroad tracks on top of the levee.
......ARRRGH!!! I guess I'll have to draw you a picture.
show me the money. This is going to rank right up there with the town of 169 that wants the Feds to give them over $350 million. Remember Obama has said he will cut earmarks, lets see him cut this earmark that Stevens got funded. Alaska will then become the tracks to nowhere.
"It's important to stop and take a big breath of wilderness air before we totally allow the rest of the "human ant colony" to chew Alaska into little bits."
Beautifully expressed Distant Thunder. There are a lot of new projects on the boards for this state in the coming years that are going to do just what you are saying here. I suppose it is inevitable with the world population exploding as it is and the fact that people on earth act much like hydraulics and so when enough density is squeezed some of them move into places like Alaska. In my 54 years living here I have witnessed it, a highway here, a powerline there, now mega gold mines so massive that they will be seen from space. I am not against developing resources so long as we are smart about it and make attempts to minimize the loss of wilderness unnecessarily. In the area of mega gold mines I have noticed that the state treasury doesn't benefit much. There are jobs, and spin off jobs created for the life of the mine but the main benefits go to the corporations. Often I have seen these big project jobs go to lower 48ers who suddenly become "Alaskans" within a month. Many times these people come here not because of a great appreciation for the uniqueness and raw beauty of this great state, but for a paycheck and their personal financial security. Nothing wrong with that I suppose, but I would rather our resources be developed more slowly, with smaller operations that benefit the people who are already living here. Small gold mines where the owner sits atop of his Cat, not at the end of some boardroom table in Idaho or Colorado. Small timber operations to serve the needs of Alaska. Smaller oil and gas development for Alaska's needs, same with Hydro. In this way we can keep more of the profits from heading south as well as keeping the state from losing its status of "Last Frontier", hopefully for at least for another 50 years.
akbearable-------
-----------------my sediments eggzactly !!!
We need to minimize the proliferation of indentured-servitude foisted upon Alaskans..
..apprenticeship is one thing, getting shanghaied is another.
It seems like an offt-repeated mistake in civil engineering to choose to make a highway or railroad to pick a 1000year fight with a wild untamed river...
...I wouldn't want to destroy the habitat of the river by reducing the total wetted surface area significantly, but by dredging a channel with increased depth [with the distant possibility of a submerged set of river-locks at the south end of the FBX-airstrip] -- a volume-velocity channel can be created all along the river from Delta to near Chena-mouth. A dedicated river-dredge will keep the channel groomed, a decent levee gets built, a lot of sand and gravel gets screened, and you'll answer the old question of how much gold might be sitting 60feet down in the bottom of the river.
It could be a community mining project..
..everybody could participate, and everybody would benefit.
it just occurred to me the river-locks could be built by making a big lateral top-adjustable frost-plug using an array of freezer-pipes as an evaporator for a big heat-pump.
Let the Feds pay for it all. The Feds are always tallking about closing
Greely. without Greely the train operation will not function at a profit. Alaska should put no money at risk - let the Feds fund it all.
akbearable and DistantThunder - I also share your "sediments". For a good study of how the small operators developed mines and found the capital to do it there is an excellent biography of the Olsen brothers and their development of the platinum mine at Goodnews Bay, how they bought up the individual claims, moved from Flat, searched out the capital and developed one of the most successful mining operation in Alaska. The Alaska Miners Association could put you onto it. I don't have the info at hand.
"We need to minimize the proliferation of indentured-servitude foisted upon Alaskans..
..apprenticeship is one thing, getting shanghaied is another."
The trick as I see it is to develop our resources in small enough increments that it doesn't attract attention outside of Alaska on a large enough scale to cause another big influx of job seekers. No, I don't have anything against people living outside and I even sympathize with their need to earn a living, but each time we have a mega project, the population of Alaska grows as does the need to provide more of the services people, especially ones fresh from the lower 48 demand, such as schools, modern highways etc, as well as employment . This places more pressure to open up more and more resources on a scale that makes mass export the quickest way to short term riches. This way nets us the least over the long term however. It is a vicious cycle, and one that must increase in magnitude over and over until we wake up and find we squandered our resources for pennies of the dollar, all for the promise of some short term employment. The oil industry on the slope is a prime example. In spite of what the oil industry (and this paper) would like us all to think, they have made off with huge profits and our P-fund is tiny compared with what it could be. The oil industry, with some paid off politicians and full page ads duped us with fear and made off with hundreds of billions over the years, and when they are gone that P-fund will evaporate over night. Look at Norway with a simillar sized oil industry, and their petroleum fund is 10 times the size of ours. We have wasted a great opportunity, what a shame.
I'm with you guys on this entire subject and philosophy.
We really know how to let people come in and mess it up.
I had high hopes when donating and campaigning for the current occupant of the Juneau/Wasilla mansion but wish in one, doodoo in the other and see which one fills up first.
People are so blind when the fever gets ahold of them and they just plain don't care about the consequences, I swear it's almost hormonal.
One more sick aspect of people willing to run rampant and rape and pillage purely for personal gain.
I was dumb enough to believe it was entirely acceptable and used to sneer at the "greenies" until time and circumstance (wisdom?) told me these booms are not a good thing for the state.
The erosion of rights, privacy, hunting and fishing space has not been pretty ever since the oil changed everything.
Definitely a double edged sword, mixed curse/blessing.
Sigh........ What a place this was.
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