According to port officials, 90% of all the fuel and other cargo delivered to Alaska comes by ship, and the Port of Alaska handles 50% of that traffic. Its docks are 50 years old, and officials fear that the 10-year useful lifespan of the port’s dilapidated infrastructure could be cut even shorter by a potential earthquake. Once the modernization project is complete, the port should be resilient to seismic activity and severe weather.
Port of Alaska officials have made it clear that the project is not an expansion, only a modernization. That is not the case, however, for other U.S. ports.
