Mat-Su gets $7.9 million federal grant for Port MacKenzie barge ramp

The Matanuska-Susitna Borough will build a barge ramp at Port MacKenzie with a $7.9 million federal grant and $4.2 million in U.S. Treasury money the borough had set aside for the purpose, a $12.1 million project. The Maritime Administration signed the award Monday, Sept. 28, according to the federal award record.

The ramp is meant to address "current limitations and instability when unloading barges and other watercrafts, especially during tidal swings," a borough purchasing memo says. It would cover about 60,000 square feet. The award record says barges and tugs could be hauled out there for repairs, maintenance and storage, and large front-loading barges could load and unload there, including roll-on roll-off cargo that is driven on and off. Crews would dig out old riprap (loose rock armoring the shore) and silt, place fill, lay geotextile fabric and set new rock.

The borough Assembly accepted the grant without objection Sept. 15 and approved a $2.9 million construction contract with Drennon Construction & Consulting, Inc., the lowest qualified bid of four. The contract runs through Dec. 31, 2027. On Oct. 6 the Assembly will consider letting Drennon take about 50,000 tons of borough-owned gravel for the ramp.

The borough applied for the grant in January 2025 and learned of the award that July, a borough memo says. The grant window closes July 1, 2028.

The borough must report two numbers to the agency each year: vessel calls and tons of cargo moved. Current figures for the port are not in the record.

Federal money has gone to the port before. The largest award is a $34 million Port MacKenzie Multimodal Port Expansion Project from the Maritime Administration's Port Infrastructure Development Program, according to the agency's project description. The Economic Development Administration put $7.6 million into the port's docks in 2021, with $1.9 million in local money, and the Maritime Administration granted $927,189 in 2024 for a rough terrain crane. The records show that money was obligated, not whether the dock work or the crane is in use.

The Denali Commission is paying $200,000 toward a port master plan update, which the borough is matching, through Dec. 31, 2027.