Heading Out Of Healy
Here is a look back to another life and another time.
One of the most exciting projects of 2012 that I had a big hand in during my time as Superintendent was the Alaska Railroad's support of the Eva Creek Wind Farm construction. This 24 megawatt 12 turbine Golden Valley Electric project was installed high on the hills east of Ferry, Alaska.
Ferry is an actual 'community' and as of the 2020 census there were 17 residents. Aside from workers supporting the Eva Creek Wind Project, most people who travel to and from Ferry are hunters and sportsmen and people four wheeling on the old Ferry Trail as well as miners accessing claims in the Bonnifeld Mining District and proposed commercial projects such as the Liberty Bell Mine. But there is no road bridge connecting Ferry to the state road system. Locals are permitted to cross the railroad bridge using a walkway, but at only about 46 inches wide only smaller atvs and pedestrians can fit. Anyone wishing to take a large side by side or a full size vehicle has to pay the railroad to haul it with their 'tundra truck' flatbed hi rail boom truck or pay for a train and load it on a flatcar in Healy for a dozen mile trip north across the bridge where the railroad has a stub ended spur track with an end ramp. As you may imagine more than one intrepid local has tried to avoid paying the railroad for that service and have driven right down the rails over this bridge. For that reason the Alaska Railroad Police make regular patrols and keep a close eye on the bridge to keep any unplanned 'meets' from happening!
Because Ferry is not on the road network all the components had to come in by rail, and
then get trucked up an old mining road reaching 10 miles into the hills that first had to be rebuilt! The towers, hubs, and nacelles all arrived in the port of Anchorage and were trucked to Healy due to clearance issues on the railroad. There they were loaded on to flat cars and shuttled 12 miles north to the offload site across the Nenana River at Ferry. The blades, however were built in the US and took an all rail routing to the port of Seattle and then traveled by rail barge to Whittier. They were each just over 148 ft long and traveled in three dedicated trains consisting of 12 blades each all the way from Whittier to Ferry. If you missed it here's a photo of a blade train in action: flic.kr/p/2juUU6q
Here is a shuttle train of hubs and tower sections pulling out of Healy Yard off West 2 onto the main at MP 360 in this view looking south off the Healy Road overpass. The train has a short 11 mile trip north to Ferry where they'll shove into the ramp track beneath the waiting cranes to be offloaded.
ARR GP38u 2007 is dressed in the 1980s 'Alaska Bold' scheme that she was delivered in after being acquired second hand in 1986. She was built by EMD as a straight GP38 in Sep. 1969 originally Penn Central 7780, later wearing Conrail blue before migrating north.
To learn more about the Eva Creek project check out this video from GVEA: youtu.be/37oZvlJl14U
Or this link from Michels Construction that was the general contractor for the project: www.michels.us/project/eva-creek-wind-farm/
Healy, Alaska
Thursday July 13, 2012
Heading Out Of Healy
Here is a look back to another life and another time.
One of the most exciting projects of 2012 that I had a big hand in during my time as Superintendent was the Alaska Railroad's support of the Eva Creek Wind Farm construction. This 24 megawatt 12 turbine Golden Valley Electric project was installed high on the hills east of Ferry, Alaska.
Ferry is an actual 'community' and as of the 2020 census there were 17 residents. Aside from workers supporting the Eva Creek Wind Project, most people who travel to and from Ferry are hunters and sportsmen and people four wheeling on the old Ferry Trail as well as miners accessing claims in the Bonnifeld Mining District and proposed commercial projects such as the Liberty Bell Mine. But there is no road bridge connecting Ferry to the state road system. Locals are permitted to cross the railroad bridge using a walkway, but at only about 46 inches wide only smaller atvs and pedestrians can fit. Anyone wishing to take a large side by side or a full size vehicle has to pay the railroad to haul it with their 'tundra truck' flatbed hi rail boom truck or pay for a train and load it on a flatcar in Healy for a dozen mile trip north across the bridge where the railroad has a stub ended spur track with an end ramp. As you may imagine more than one intrepid local has tried to avoid paying the railroad for that service and have driven right down the rails over this bridge. For that reason the Alaska Railroad Police make regular patrols and keep a close eye on the bridge to keep any unplanned 'meets' from happening!
Because Ferry is not on the road network all the components had to come in by rail, and
then get trucked up an old mining road reaching 10 miles into the hills that first had to be rebuilt! The towers, hubs, and nacelles all arrived in the port of Anchorage and were trucked to Healy due to clearance issues on the railroad. There they were loaded on to flat cars and shuttled 12 miles north to the offload site across the Nenana River at Ferry. The blades, however were built in the US and took an all rail routing to the port of Seattle and then traveled by rail barge to Whittier. They were each just over 148 ft long and traveled in three dedicated trains consisting of 12 blades each all the way from Whittier to Ferry. If you missed it here's a photo of a blade train in action: flic.kr/p/2juUU6q
Here is a shuttle train of hubs and tower sections pulling out of Healy Yard off West 2 onto the main at MP 360 in this view looking south off the Healy Road overpass. The train has a short 11 mile trip north to Ferry where they'll shove into the ramp track beneath the waiting cranes to be offloaded.
ARR GP38u 2007 is dressed in the 1980s 'Alaska Bold' scheme that she was delivered in after being acquired second hand in 1986. She was built by EMD as a straight GP38 in Sep. 1969 originally Penn Central 7780, later wearing Conrail blue before migrating north.
To learn more about the Eva Creek project check out this video from GVEA: youtu.be/37oZvlJl14U
Or this link from Michels Construction that was the general contractor for the project: www.michels.us/project/eva-creek-wind-farm/
Healy, Alaska
Thursday July 13, 2012