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March 6, 2009 The Honorable Ray H. LaHood Secretary of Transportation 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE Washington, DC 20590 Dear Mr. Secretary: Thank you for meeting last week with Gov the Port of Anchorage, regarding the Port ernor Bill Sheffield, the Port Director for s intermodal expansion project. We understand that you indicated you would put the intermodal expansion project on your radar screen for the $1.5 billion discretiona ry surface transportation program under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). As Governor Sheffield has made clear, the Port has $175 million of read y-to-go and fully permitted work. We urge you to award money under the program quickly, when projects like this can provide stimulus to the economy with thousands of jobs. The Port of Anchorage expansion project has significant impact on the Nation, the Anchorage metropolitan area, the entire State of Alaska, and the Pacific Northwest region. The Port serves 85% of the Sta te population and provides 90% of their consumer goods. It is at the center of a hub-and-spoke distribution system that is a lifeline for remote villages all over Alaska. One country that has been designated by the Dep of only 16 commercial ports around the artment of Defense as a Strategic Port, the Port is essential to serving the thousands of Army and Air Force personnel through out Alaska and together with the Alaska Rail road provides critical access to the Arm ys million-plus acre training ranges in Alaskas interior. Moreover, the expanded facilities are vitally important for supporting the build Pipeline to the Midwest and for storing and up of the planned Alaska Natural Gas shipping construction materials for offsh ore drilling and pipeline construction. Finally, Alaska and specifically the Port are key drivers in the Pacific Northwest economy. For example, over 46,000 jobs in the Puget Sound area of Washington State are directly dependent on maritime trade with Alaska. We wish to emphasize the importance of allocating a major part of the $1.5 billio discretionary surface transportation prog ram to landside port infrastructure proje n cts around the country. Unlike highways, trans it, rail, aviation, and ferries, ports do not have a dedicated source of Federal funding and the discretionary program is the ideal way to fund port infrastructure projects In the United States. It has been conserva tively

510 C. SulE Sur 500 ANCHORAGE, AIC 99501 907-271.5978

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Control number: S 10-090325-038 Document date: 3/6/2009 Writer: Don Young

Action office: Due date:

MARAD 4/1/2009

Subject: Action: Date

3/25/2009 3/25/2009 3/25/2009 3/25/2009 3/25/2009

U.S. House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515 Port of Anchorages Intermodal Expansion Project

For Signature Action

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Action by
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3/25/2009

Date

Note

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3/25/2009