•The Alaska Railroad plans to begin work next summer on a $120 million bridge, the longest in Alaska.
The railroad bridge across the Tanana River in Salcha is to be about 3,300 feet long, about 1,000 feet longer than the Yukon River Bridge. The bridge is billed by the railroad as the first step in extending the railroad 80 miles to Delta.
The bridge construction is expected to take four years. A levee several thousand feet long is to be built along the north side to help keep the Tanana within its banks in the Salcha area. The levee will not eliminate the Salcha flood threat, by the way, but it should reduce the problem.
The bridge is to be built over the river at a point south of the Salcha Fairgrounds.
The bridge would be open only to the military to begin with, providing access to training lands on the south side of the Tanana. It is to have railroad tracks in the middle and be set up for vehicle traffic as well, with an extra wide lane.
About $105 million of the money for the levee and bridge was approved by Congress in the 2007 and 2008 fiscal years in the military budget. Whether more will be forthcoming is a big question.
It might take $100 million more to build a rail connection to Eielson and hundreds of millions more to go to Delta, but that money has not been approved by Congress for the state-owned railroad. It is unlikely that the state will propose to spend hundreds of millions on this project, so its future is uncertain.
The railroad is planning open houses Dec. 1 at the Salcha Elementary School and Dec. 2 at the North Pole Hotel. Both events are from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
The railroad is working with the Congressional delegation to get $12 million from a previous appropriation for the Fort Wainwright track realignment transferred to this job.
The environmental review of the project began four years ago and what is known as a Record of Decision is expected shortly.
There is more detail at www.northernrailextension.com.
The bridge would provide year-round access for the military to training areas south of the Tanana, access that is now limited to the winter months and travel on ice bridges.
If the other segments are built, then the railroad could ship freight for commercial purposes and run passenger trains for tourists, the project supporters say.
Nope. The next phase after the bridge is from where the rail turns to cross the Rich at the Chena Flood Project and run it out to Salcha to the bridge site, which is west of the Salcha Fairgrounds.
Whether the track in Moose Creek remains in place to service Eielson or be moved to the south of the base later on remains to be seen. Right now looks like status quo.
Just what we need, a bunch of fools moving something that is sitting quiet and doing NO harm what so ever. How stupid can one person be? The cost of building these projects are so inflated that it is a wonder anything can get done. Studies and years of wasted time and money put most of good ideas out of reach. This bridge should have been built 20 years ago, just as dams should be being build NOW, it will never get cheaper, stop the studys and get to work..
It seemed to me in the old report for that mess that it was better off left in place than to be disturbed.
My passed experience with the Army COE is that if they're involved in a moving water project, it'll be screwed up, so we'll see.
about "hydrostatic"
A properly designed velocity channel of considerable length, width and depth will be nearly invisible from satellite when completed because it will be under the main channel of the existing river. This velocity channel can be designed to be throttled even under the terrific dynamics of ice-choked breakup and flooding conditions.
Designed depth is a key component of this type of project.
I hope the folks in the right of way get a fair shake; at least better than the Borough would offer.
See ya that Tuesday.
This will open up the whole southern end of the borough to barge access. Barge access will also benefit the long delayed environmental cleanup of Ft.Greely and Ft.Wainwright. The decaying nuke-reactor at Ft.Greely needs to be moved in a containment vessel too big for railcars, a barge can effectively move this chunk of toxic junk to Hanford,WA for processing.