Heavy Lifting at Port MacKenzie

MAT-SU—  In the month of May, three vessels successfully docked at Port MacKenzie, opening the doors for even more business as the young port continues to grow. The first vessel offloaded 5 scrapers which were put straight to work on the first five-mile segment of the rail extension that will connect to the mainline in Houston.

MAT-SU—   In the month of May, three vessels successfully docked at Port MacKenzie, opening the doors for even more business as the young port continues to grow. The first vessel offloaded 5 scrapers which were put straight to work on the first five-mile segment of the rail extension that will connect to the mainline in Houston.

One week later, that vessel was followed by the “Pacific Dawn,” a Norwegian ship which had its holds stuffed with three spools of cable to be offloaded to a waiting barge under the watchful gaze of Dave Cruz, CEO of Cruz Companies. The two largest house-sized spools, weighing 220 tons each, required the coordinated efforts of two highly skilled onboard crane operators to pull off the delicate operation of offloading while water was being pumped simultaneously into a pontoon on the opposite side of the ship in order to counterbalance the massive load being passed to the barge. The cable will stretch across the sea floor of Upper Cook Inlet, connecting wind power turbines on Fire Island to a power grid in Anchorage near the Kincaid Chalet.

The third vessel arriving in May brought with it a crane, capable of lifting 220 tons. Wasting no time, King Hufford, CEO of PacArctic Logistics, used the crane to lift 60 loads of logs from the barge to the dock. Having the crane at the Port will allow for scheduled service, creating tremendous opportunity.

In addition to the three ships in May, eleven more vessels have docked in June, offloading a variety of cargo, with much more to come.

Photos by Stefan Hinman

For more information, contact Stefan Hinman at 907-745-9520 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Watch the video here showing the massive cable spools being lifted from their holds.