Alaska Canada Railroad extension
The first segment of the Alaska Canada Railroad extension is now under construction between Fairbanks and Delta in order to meet the needs of the U.S. Military.
The U.S. Army is helping pay the cost of building the bridge over the Tanana River at Salcha south east of Fairbanks. The dual Rail & Highway Bridge will initially only be used by the U.S. Army, but the Bridge is an essential part of extending the Alaska Railroad to the Canadian border.
Rough surveys have been done as far as Delta at this time.
The Hope is that the U.S. Department of Defense will pay the cost to Delta to improve logistics for the missile Defense Facility there.
The Alaska Railroad Corp. a State-owned Railroad is working on its long-range plan for rail extension from Fairbanks to Delta in hopes of crossing the Canadian border some day.
Alberta's Energy Minister Ken Hughes is pursuing all options to bring Alberta's heavy crude & oil sands to any market he can find, now that Obama has stopped the Keystone Pipeline and British Columbia is opposed to having any of Alberta's Crude delivered to its Seaports for the Asian and U.S. west coast markets, rather then its traditional American markets directly south.
Alberta is now looking at building a pipeline north to link up with the Trans-Alaska Pipeline which is running at only 1/3 its capacity due to low production in Alaska, or building a Rail-line north and link up with the Alaska Railroad in order to ship it's Crude products from an Alaskan port to the Asian markets across the Beaufort Sea.
Canadian Provincial Officials were in Alaska the week of July 15 to build support for the new options for exporting Alberta's landlocked Oil, at the Pacific North West Economic Region, the PNWER, annual meeting being this year in Alaska.
PNWER is a Regional Association of Northwest U.S. States and Western Canadian Provinces.
Ken Hughes said in an interview that a study of a pipeline to Tuktoyaktuk is nearly complete, while the Alaska plan is due to be finished by 2014.
Alberta has retained 2 consultants, Calgary-based Canatec Associations International for the northern Pipeline option and the Van Horne Institute and University of Calgary for the Rail proposal.
While the Canadian First Nations Group has been pursuing the Alaska Rail initiative for some time with the G Seven Generations LTD. with Alberta making a 1.8 million dollar contribution toward the cost of the Rail option study.
Northwest Territories Minister David Ramsay said his Province favors the northern pipeline option as it would provide an out let for a Shale Oil development in their region as well as Alberta's Oil, and it would help develop construction of a Mackenzie River Gas Pipeline in the future.
The G Seven Generations have been in contact with Alaska this year regarding a railroad system capable of moving up to 1 million barrels of crude per day
University of Alaska minerals economists have done studies showing that a Rail Transportation System would reduce shipping costs for Alaska and would lead to more development of new mines in Alaska.
Alaska is only 9.5 hours flying time to 90% of the industrialized world, and has more natural resources then any State in the Union.
Alaska is at the center of the global supply chain and has no Ground Transportation Infrastructure.
It is time for Alaska to develop a modern transportation system and take It's place in the world as a Global Transportation Hub and supplier of natural resources.
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