ANCHORAGE — The mayor of Anchorage and the director of the Port of Anchorage appear to be at odds over the scope of a project to expand the port.
Mayor Dan Sullivan said last week that he would seek $350 million from the Legislature to ensure the project gets finished in a manner that will serve the state for the next 40 to 50 years.
But port director Bill Sheffield told the Anchorage Daily News that he continues to see the port expansion project as costing about $1 billion. He told the Daily News that he will seek money to finish the project after the initial work is completed.
“The rest of the project will come later,” Sheffield said.
The full-scale project involves creating a new 1.5-mile dock out of sheets of steel, and backfilling it with gravel to create new land. Cargo ships would get new berths. A petroleum dock would be redone.
Sullivan’s chief of staff, Larry Baker, seemed puzzled by Sheffield’s comments.
“I don’t know where he’s coming up with that. That’s clearly not the direction the administration is pursuing,” he said.
Anchorage Democrat, Rep. Les Gara, said that he met with Sheffield on Friday and has written a letter to the mayor and Assembly members informing them that reports that the project has been scaled back are apparently inaccurate.
“Policymakers should know the full cost of this project as the City and Port continue to seek state funding,” Gara wrote. “Apart from minor items, the project has not been scaled back.”
The port project has been stalled because of construction problems and lack of funding. In the 2011 legislative session, Sheffield asked the state for $320 million but received only $30 million.
City and state officials have said the port is essential to the state because much of what Alaskans eat, wear and drive arrives through it.
Comments (4)
Add commentThe usual maneuver
Low ball the price to get public money, then after that money's been burned through, reveal that the real cost will be many times higher. We see it over and over - could be a port in Anchorage (which won't benefit Southeast one bit) or a bridge to Douglas Island or a road up Lynn Canal or a high school.
Truth? We can't HANDLE the truth!
well, then move the port
You can build a lot of port somewhere else with all the intermodal connectivity for a fraction of that amount of money. It is just a bad place to build a port with enourmous tides, constant dredging and ice. It is the wrong place for something like this. Downtown Anchorage is not the best location for a port anyway.
The unneeded dock and the unconvicted felon
The new Anchorage dock was peddled to the public on the basis that new dock would allow all kinds new freight go across the new dock.
When Begich was first elected Mayor, I asked Begich just exactly what was going go across the new dock that could not be handled by the old dock? Begcih’s answer was nothing. However, Anchorage needed new dock to accommodate the larger container ships.
Three months later with much fanfare the largest of the new container ships docked. So I call the container ship’s captain and asked about his problems docking. The captain not only said no problems in docking, but also stated “they” did not want Begich’s large dock. The new dock was scam to give Begich’s ‘bagman’ Bill Sheffield a job.
Governor Bill Sheffield when governor took a $95,000 bribe to rig the State Fairbanks office building bid. John Shively, Pebble, then Sheffield chief of staff and bagman, ratted Sheffield out to save himself. Sheffield escaped prosecution with oil company intrigued worthy of a book and for which Alaska paid terrible price, billions of dollars lost to oil companies.
The briber having neither impeachment nor prosecution of Sheffield then sued the State of Alaska for performance. The State Supreme Court up held the lower court and said a crime had been committed and the State of Alaska did not have to buy the bribers building.
The briber wants to know who ended up with his $95,000 and he still wants his $95,000 back because he did not get anything for his $95,000.
Bill Sheffield then became Dan Sullivan’s bagman in addition to being Begich’s bagman and the dock continued. The new Anchorage Dock would fall apart in earthquake. In fact the new dock fell apart just standing there. The old dock when though the 1964 earthquake and was mainstay for Anchorage. So many of the Anchorage Assembly have their hands in Sheffield’s back pocket that the Assembly cannot come to grips with what needs to be done with dock and dock issue continues to drift.
The new dock needs to be investigated by the FBI. Second the engineering needs to be reviewed not only independently but also by the Army Corps of Engineers for its soundness and to determine if there is better approach and /or a less expensive approach to salvaging what there is now.
Also, there is a new shoal building up in Cook Inlet which is interfering with docking at the Anchorage dock . What is causing the shoal? The Anchorage dock or the MatSu’s Point Mackenzie dock?
The sham battle between Mayor Dan Sullivan and Sullivan’s bagman, Bill Sheffield, $350 million vs. $1 billion, is just to distract the public’s attention. Which it has.