Supplies like food, building materials, cars, clothing and fuel arrive every week. The port provides services to approximately 90 percent of Alaska’s population and receives about half of all goods entering the state. As the only port in Southcentral Alaska to survive the 1964 Good Friday Earthquake, it has served as the main shipping hub for consumer and essential goods in the region since that time.

Located at the north end of Cook Inlet, the Port of Alaska, formally known as the Port of Anchorage, began operations in Anchorage Harbor in September 1961. “If a ship comes in that is not on schedule, then the dredge can quickly move out of the way or if there is a concern about a certain spot in the channel, then the dredge can move to that location to meet the needs of the harbor’s users.”

“We use a hopper dredge, which has two heads that suction off the bottom and never stop as the dredge moves one to two knots through the harbor,” Anderson said. Its onboard hold area, known as the hopper, carries the sediment load until it can be deposited by opening the split hull at least 3,000 feet offshore where currents will not bring the material back to the port. Together, these processes gradually fill channels, which prevents deeper drafting vessels from navigating the waterways and delivering goods.įor the Port of Alaska, the Westport, a 2,000-cubic-yard hopper dredge, maintains the seafloor to the congressionally approved depth of -35 feet for safe navigation. A small amount of material comes from sedimentation, the process of sand and silt washing downstream. Shoaling north, south and at the dock face contributes to most of the accumulation in combination with some of the largest tidal fluctuations in the world. However, underwater shoals in Cook Inlet cause sediment to settle in the harbor creating depths that ships cannot traverse. “We all want our stuff, so it is important that we provide an environment in which shippers can be on time,” Anderson said. Army Corps of Engineers – Alaska District contracted to maintain the mooring areas for the past three years.Īn estimated 2,400 to 2,600 cargo containers arrive at the port each week to keep stores supplied with consumer goods throughout the Interior and Southcentral Alaska, said Julie Anderson, operations branch chief for the Alaska District. The boat is a dredging vessel called the Westport, operated by Manson Construction of Seattle, Wash., which the U.S.

All summer long, a crimson and white boat moves back and forth through the waters near the Port of Alaska collecting silt, sand and gravel off the seafloor to allow vessels to navigate the harbor in Anchorage.

Legacy dredge 2019