This summer, the Matanuska-Susitna Borough will move soil on four segments of a new 32-mile railroad, creating up to 200 jobs and producing $116 million in construction work.

New lessees at Port MacKenzie will increase freight traffic at the deepwater dock as well as begin building infrastructure. Central Alaska Energy and PacArctic Logistics have positioned themselves at the port for resource development.
Nine miles up from the port, 190 new jobs at Goose Creek Correctional Center weren’t there a year ago. The state facility—brought about by the Mat-Su Borough—earned a national award for construction from the Design-Build Institute of America.
Closer to our seat of government in Palmer, the historic Dorothy Swanda Jones building is welcoming a new 18,000-square foot addition. By summer, the territorial schoolhouse, dating back to 1935, will have an assembly chamber expansive enough for 350 citizens. On education, more than $214 million in new schools and upgrades are getting underway.

At Hatcher Pass, 7.5 km of designed trails have created a stir of activity for Nordic skiing and tourism. In a single ski event 500 visitors enjoyed the new Government Peak Recreation Area situated above it all with sweeping views from the trail, of Knik Glacier the Hay Flats and the Chugach Range. This summer construction begins on a Chalet/Adventure Center.
Over the next two years, transportation infrastructure will undergo transformational expansion. Up to $54 million in Borough road construction projects will get underway on vital connector roads from Butte to Sutton to Knik-Fairview to Talkeetna and more.
Such monumental effort at taming the frontier makes all of us in the Mat-Su Borough have a stake in this sometimes austere yet often beautiful place.