Dear Students

I have made arrangements to visit the Port of Anchorage for a tour. Below is the correspondence from Leo Carroll, Director of Special Projects. He is really enthusiastic about our visit. Please read his letter and follow the suggested links to get a better understanding of the Port and its current issues. I will fill you in on the news on Friday:

 Anca,

It was nice talking to you today about your visit to the Port of Anchorage.  I have attached a link to our web page and would encourage you to look at the Intermodal Expansion Project information contained there.  http://www.muni.org/departments/port/pages/default.aspx I have scheduled our meeting with you and your students for 10:00 am on Thursday January 28, 2010.  It will be held in the Port Administration Building Conference Room.  I will send an outlook calendar notice in a separate e-mail.  We have scheduled Governor Sheffield to attend the meeting. Barring any unforeseen schedule conflicts, he will be able to share some great insights with your students.  He is a former Governor of the State of Alaska, former Chairman of the Alaska Railroad, and is currently the Director of the Port of Anchorage.

We propose to give you a short presentation about the role the port plays as the transportation hub for shipping goods throughout Alaska and also the current Port Intermodal Expansion Project.  We are adding 135 new acres of commercial waterfront property, three new 100 gauge cranes, new docks, rail links, and a number of new facilities.  The project is scheduled for completion in 2015.  In the last 2 years we have added 60 acres of new land and a new wet barge berth and a new dry barge berth. The Port of Anchorage is mainly a commercial shipping port.  We have 2 containership companies that call on the port twice a week.  Each ship holds approximately 600 containers, so when they are fully loaded they will deliver 2,400 containers per week.  We also have calls from cement ships, steel ships, and many fuel ships and barges.  In addition, we are a Department of Defense Strategic Port.  We ship military equipment from all the 5 military bases in Alaska to various locations around the world.

As I mentioned in our conversation, we are very excited about our new cruise ship business.  We have had periodic visits from smaller cruise ships over the years. For instance the Residencesea ship “the World” called on the port last summer.  http://www.aboardtheworld.com/  However, next summer we are having the Holland America Ship MS Amsterdam call on the port every other Monday. http://www.hollandamerica.com/cruise-vacation-onboard/Amsterdam We have been told by Holland America that sales are going quite well.  If we are successful next summer there is a strong likelihood of increased cruise ship business.  In which case, we will need to look at long term arrangements to accommodate this business.

The bottom line is that your timing couldn’t be better.  We need to start thinking about a cruise terminal!

I hope the weather is clear when you and your students are here.  Right now I’m looking at the snow covered mountains across Cook Inlet and can see the plume rising from the Mount Readout Volcano.  This is a stunningly beautiful place when the weather is good.

We look forward to seeing you and your students.

Leo Carroll
Director of Special Projects
Port of Anchorage
2000 Anchorage Port Road
Anchorage, AK 99501
CarrollLM@muni.org