New grant helps fund cold-storage facility at Anchorage airport

Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport will be the recipient of a USD 21 million (EUR 17.9 million) federal transportation grant that will help fund a large cold-storage facility at the site, the U.S. congressional delegation from Alaska announced last Monday.

Plans for the site itself had already been announced, but the grant, which was awarded to the Alaska Energy Authority, was made public last week.

The facility is projected to be 190,000 square feet and will be a component of a larger project worth some USD 220 million (EUR 187 million) and spanning about 715,000 square feet, which would increase the capacity of cargo services using Anchorage as a stopover point. The cold-storage portion of the facility will cost USD 90 million (EUR 76.48 million) according to the Anchorage Daily News.

While the airport is one of the world’s busiest as a key refueling point, the vast majority of cargo that passes through Anchorage doesn’t leave the airplane while the plane is filling up. The addition of the cold-storage site could allow for carriers to store and sort freight and have it distributed directly from Alaska without the need for a stop at another domestic airport, which is typically the current practice. The cold-storage site would also optimize storage for goods heading to remote locations in Alaska, according to U.S. Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska).

Alaska’s U.S. senators, Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, predicted that the cold-storage warehouse could provide Alaskans with more than 800 jobs during the construction period and more than 100 once the site is operational.

According to a statement issued by Alaska’s congressional delegation, the space would be “leased to third-party customers, including freight forwarders and cargo carriers.” The facility would also include warm and general storage. 

Design work on the site is expected to begin this fall, with groundbreaking at the site planned for the beginning of 2021.

Photo courtesy of EQRoy/Shutterstock