Anchorage’s port is already falling apart. With the clock ticking, who will pay to fix it?
In about 10 years, the docks at the Port of Anchorage will start closing, crippled by corrosion, unless major repairs are made. But with the clock ticking, it's still unclear who will pay for it, and how. Without a big injection of state or federal funding, officials say the port, which opened in 1961, is more likely to resort to a tariff that leads to higher prices on the vast majority of consumer products that come into the state. That means everyone would pay a little more for a gallon of milk, a loaf of bread, a car or a sheet of plywood. A scary incident at the port earlier this summer accentuated warnings about its condition. At 7 a.m. June 26, the Holland America cruise ship MS Amsterdam docked at the port. Waves kicked up by the ship while it was docking broke the severely corroded underwater base of two columns holding up the port — causing a 57,000- pound dock fender to break off and sink into the adjacent berth. Corroded metal pipes , part of a fender ...