SALCHA - Twenty-one ceremonial shovels were wielded at the groundbreaking for the Tanana River Bridge, which said something about both the profile of the project and the anticipation behind Wednesday's event.

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FAIRBANKS - Fairbanks was never a coal-mining town, but coal did help Fairbanks recover from the lean times of the late 1910s and early 1920s. In 1910, about 11,000 people lived in the Fairbanks area (the city had 3,541 residents) but after the drift mines were played out, most miners moved on. By 1920, the city had shrunk to about 1,100 residents and most mining camps were virtually deserted.

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There aren't many rules on the train called the Hurricane Turn. Dogs roam the aisles and sit next to their owners on the seats. The baggage car doors are wide open, even when the train is moving.

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The Daily Mail of London reports that Russian officials are resurrecting an idea championed by the late Gov. Wally Hickel: linking Asia and North America with a 65-mile-long undersea rail tunnel across the Bering Strait at a cost of nearly $100 billion.

The tunnel, linking Uelen on the Russian side with Nome on the Alaskan side, would surface twice on Big Diomede and Little Diomede islands. The 15-year project was proposed by the Kremlin this week at a three-day economic conference in Yakutsk on utilizing the resources of the Russian Far East.

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At Tuesday night's meeting of the Mat-Su Borough Assembly, members came face-to-face with dozens of people and their opinions about the proposed Wishbone Hill coal mine outside of Sutton.

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FAIRBANKS — Fairbanks has seen plenty of tourists this season, but nothing quite like the small group of hobbyists who set out to view Alaska from the seat of old-fashioned railroad speeders — compact car-sized maintenance vehicles that were used during the past century.

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FAIRBANKS — As construction crews start work on the Tanana rail bridge crossing, drivers on the Richardson Highway could start to see delays.

Lane closures, closed shoulders and reduced speeds will be part of construction that’s scheduled to start near Salcha within the next few days and run through November as crews embark on three years of construction.

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The Alaska Railroad recently purchased both hopper and flat cars:

- 70 used hopper cars, builder Johnstown, year built 1999/2000, aluminum, quad hopper bottom discharge, rotary, 3770 cubic foot capacity, all due in Alaska by early October

- 40 used multi configuration COFC Flat cars, builder Greenbrier, year built 2000, all due in Alaska by mid November

[Webmaster's note: It sure would be nice to see some photos of these to use for upcoming Pictures of the Week!]
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FAIRBANKS — The Alaska Railroad will host an open house later this month to field questions about the upcoming Tanana River bridge project.

The 3,300-foot bridge, part of a $190 million first phase of a project that will eventually expand railroad operations to Delta Junction, will include a new span across the river and a related levee near Salcha. The project is expected to last three years, with groundbreaking planned next month.

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FAIRBANKS — Crews will need 450,000 tons of stone to support a newbridge across the Tanana River, according to the Alaska Railroad Corp.

The railroad, which is leading the bridge project, secured a lead contractor late last month and has work crews preparing the riverbanks near Salcha for construction, the corporation said this week.

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FAIRBANKS, Alaska - Plans to build a new bridge across the Tanana River are moving forward with the Alaska Railroad Corp. securing a lead contractor for the project.

The railroad has signed a $156.4 million deal with Nebraska-based Kiewit Corp. to be the lead contractor for the project, expected to cost about $190 million and the railroad.

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FAIRBANKS — Ever think of working an antique small-track train into your morning commute?

Transportation officials are talking about extending the Pioneer Park train track — yes, the one that meanders around the Alaska history-oriented park — to downtown. The track could follow a roughly two-mile stretch of the Chena River to the Morris Thompson Cultural and Visitors Center.

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Editorial: 50 years ago

Editor’s note: As the Alaska Railroad prepares to build a bridge across the Tanana River near Salcha, it’s timely to note the long-standing hope that, someday, such a rail extension will connect to the Lower 48. That desire was evident in the following Daily News-Miner editorial from 50 years ago, July 17, 1961.

It is heartening to see that four major U.S. railroads and the Port of Seattle have announced plans for an improvement in shipping service to Alaska.

According to the recent announcement, the railroads and a Canadian barge line will start a seatrain service to Alaska in the immediate future. The participants say they can start such a service in six to eight months time with a $4 million investment and bring loaded railroad cars to railbelt points.

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FAIRBANKS — I’m not sure how this would pencil out, but there’s a new plan to build a 1,250-mile railroad from Alberta to Alaska to send oil made from oil sands to Valdez, according to a Canadian company called G Seven Generations.

The $12 billion project, under which the railroad would supply oil to the trans-Alaska pipeline near Delta, has yet to move beyond the press release stage, so take this with a grain of skepticism.

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