A former Anchorage police officer charged with downloading child pornography will face a jury after months of pretrial motions illustrated the difficulties of proving possession of electronic data.

Recently confirmed by a case titled Worden v. the state of Alaska, simply viewing child pornography is not a crime.

//www.frontiersman.com/news/computer-data-at-heart-of-porn-trial/article_0474a2e3-a366-5cef-be14-1b03d4076b9a.html

//imfederallyreserved.wordpress.com/page/5/

Anchorage Alaska is a perfect example of out of control politicians. The town is run by a self-serving political system that feeds itself off of the would be wealth of the community. From the re-paving of almost every street in Anchorage every year, the over sized under worked police force, to the entire overpaid municipal government that purchases new cars and trucks for its employees to drive every single year which are then auctioned off for penny’s on the dollar, the overtaxing of residence through property taxes that are escalated well beyond the value of the properties taxed, to the 500 million dollar port that was built and was a failed project before it was even completed, the port is and was a complete engineering failure that will cost countless dollars to remove before they can build a port that actually functions and is usable.

Yet in a city and state that has enough money to throw away on failed projects, you will find homeless people on every street corner of the city, a city that does not have the compassion or care to take care of its own people. The once beautiful town of Anchorage has now became a violent, drug infested cesspool seemingly ran by gangs, the largest one would be the Anchorage Police Department. Anchorage is the blight to all Alaska. It has a police force that neither performs its duties for its citizens or is capable of upholding the laws of the community. There motto that states to protect and serve, obviously means to protect the corrupt establishment for which it now serves.

The system of Anchorage has always been very corrupt. we can look back to the Murder of Jason Daniels 20-25 years ago. Jason was a 18 year old male that had been sighted smoking cannabis I believe by Airport Police Officer Gresset. When the Officer turned on his lights Jason Fled. The airport policemen was determined to apprehend Mr Daniels, and chased him to the nearby Town of Indian Alaska, even though his jurisdiction to pursue anyone had ended at least twenty miles before the chase came to a climax. Jason had drove to Indian for that is where he had lived with his mother. When he was close to his mothers house he exited his aged van and ran through the dark woods trying to get to the safety of his mothers house. He never made it for the pursuing Airport Police Officer Gresset shot the unarmed Mr Daniels in the back five times with a 357 magnum gun, fatally wounding him. The real injustice in this story, (besides the murder of a eighteen year old man) would be that Mr Gresset did not even answer for this shooting until one month after it occured. When he did issue a report on what had happened that night he did it through a lawyer, and then the report was turned over to the A.P.D. He was never charged with a crime although the municipality of Anchorage did settle with the murdered mans family for a amount of over $300,000.00. Very little compensation for the loss of the life of a young man, that was most likely just scared and reacted in a way that a lot of children would have reacted. (fight or Flight). This is one of numerous cases that have been handled by the municipality in the same way, from rape of residents at Police Substations, to numerous murders, the Municipality of Anchorage always stands behind the criminal element in the Anchorage Police Department and solves the problem by settling these cases with a monetary settlement. This is Criminal in itself yet there is no Government agency apparently capable of governing itself as these cases easily prove.

Now lets look at the case of Anthony Rollins. This was the rapist employed by the Anchorage Police Department. These rapes should have never happened but were allowed to because of the corrupt political system by which Anchorage Alaska is ran. Anthony Rollins when employed by the APD had been enjoying another day on the job,  in 2005 when Lt. Paul Honeman walks in on Rollins, lying on a desk, in the Public Affairs office at APD. Honeman sees the feet and hair of what seems to be a woman underneath. Honeman leaves. When questioned about it later, Rollins denies a woman was in the office and says he was sleeping. Honeman reports the incident but it’s unclear how the investigation concluded. Walt Monegan  was chief of police at the time (a future candidate for Mayor of Anchorage). What the officer walked in on, was Mr Rollins having sex with another officer on the desk of the public affairs office. The Police department did decide to do a investigation to determine if Mr Rollins was not performing on the job as the A.P.D, would have expected of its employees. After a investigation at taxpayers expense, nothing found out of the ordinary. Mr Rollins then married had been followed and was found to be in a sexual relationship with another married officer while on duty, (I am not sure if this is prostitution as they were both getting paid for having sex on duty) but as the investigation ended it was decided that he was performing his job up to the standards that are now, and were then expected of the Anchorage Police Department. No crime committed, no charges filed, no demotion, no justice. Unfortunately Anchorage did lose the service of this fine public servant when it was proven that he had raped at least nine Anchorage women at Police substations many handcuffed and even further abused.

The women that were raped at the hands of the Anchorage Police Department did receive a settlement from the Municipality of Anchorage.

//www.adn.com/alaska-news/article/rollins-sentenced-87-years-prison/2012/04/14/

The corruption of this department is very engrained, it is not surprising they are involved in the terrorist Gangstalking program alongside the FBI, NSA, Fusion Centers, Infraguard, Citizen Corps, neighbourhood watch, etc

Former corrections officer sentenced in child porn case

Bryan N. Herrera, 42, faces charges of possessing and distributing child pornography and of attempting to use a remote-controlled camera to take pictures of a teenage girl undressing, according to charging documents filed in court at his arraignment Tuesday.

Herrera is the fifth officer from Alaska law enforcement agencies to face serious criminal charges over the past two years, and the second Anchorage police officer arrested on child pornography charges in four months.

Police Chief Walt Monegan said Tuesday that he was deeply disturbed by the two arrests at his department but also is proud his detectives were investigating the cases with the same vigor they do other cases. He said he hoped the public would judge the department on “the actions of the many, not the few.”

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Ex-officer arrested again on child porn charge

A former Anchorage police officer, already convicted once of possessing child pornography, has been arrested and charged again.

Bryan Herrera, 44, was charged last month with violating the terms of his probation for having downloaded and stored thousands of child porn images in his computer, according to police spokeswoman Marlene Lammers.

3 hackers get light sentences after working with the FBI

Bills to ban police sexual contact with prostitutes they investigate met with opposition

• Author: Michelle Theriault Boots
• Updated: May 8, 2017
• Published May 7, 2017

But there’s an awkward caveat: In some “very, very limited” circumstances, the Anchorage Police Department wants to reserve the right for an undercover officer to have certain forms of sexual contact in the course of an investigation, Case said.

He knows that isn’t going to sound good. And he wants to explain.

A zero-sexual-contact rule would doom investigations of prostitution — which remains illegal in Alaska — because sex workers have in the past quickly caught on to what police are allowed or not allowed to do in the course of such investigations, Case said.

It all comes down to touching, he said: Prostitutes have used a technique known as “cop checking” to immediately identify officers and shut down an investigation.

The Tasi Shooting

Not much to say on the Shane Tasi shooting until I find the full video. It appears that the children had survived Tasi’s rage, and it is understandable that being attacked with a small broomstick could cause injury, (although I was attacked with a large stick in my driveway in June and the Anchorage police offered no assistance). But the officer in this case did have a four foot chain link fence separating him from the suspect who was swinging the stick through the air as he approached. The other course of action might have been to take 2-3 steps backwards while talking and alleviating the situation. He might have even shot Tasi in a non lethal area of his body, but the A.P.D. does train its officers to shoot in the “kill Zone”.

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ANCHORAGE POLICE KILL ELDERLY MAN WITH BB GUN AFTER HIS SON HAD CALLED THEM FOR HELP, AND WARNED THEM THAT HIS FATHER WAS ARMED WITH BB GUN!

The Anchorage police and the state Department of Law said that an investigation of the fatal officer-involved shooting of 59-year-old Harry Smith at his Jewel Lake home on July 1 determined the killing was justified.

The patrol officers had arrived at the Noble Circle home that night after Smith’s son called 911. The officers approached Smith in his backyard, where he refused to drop a handgun he was holding, police said. After an officer shot Smith with a foam projectile, Smith pointed a gun at them and two officers opened fire with shotguns, killing Smith, according to police.

The gun Smith was said to have brandished was a .177-caliber BB gun that looked almost identical to a larger-caliber, more deadly Smith and Wesson handgun, police said.

The fatal shooting was the second fatal shooting by Anchorage police officers during the summer of 2012, two out of three for the year so far.

According to a written statement from police on Thursday, the Department of Law’s Office of Special Prosecutions and Appeals reviewed a police investigation and it “concluded that the use of deadly force was justified and that the officers acted believing that deadly force was necessary to protect their lives and the lives of others.”

In a statement Smith’s son, Russell Smith, said Thursday the police officers involved in the shooting are lying about what happened, including about what he told dispatchers and police officers at the scene. Police say Smith’s version of the story is wrong and that the officers shot to protect him and others.

Russell Smith did say the police are hiding the truth to protect their officers.

“They are making statements that are contrary to fact,” he said.

Smith said he called police because he wanted help getting his father (who was struggling with alcohol abuse and depression and wanted to hurt himself) to involuntary psychiatric care. Smith further said he told dispatchers his father did not have access to a deadly firearm and had only a BB gun.

“He was going to trick the police officers into shooting him,” Smith had said.

Smith’s elderly father was in the backyard when about 10 police officers arrived, his son said. The dispatcher told the younger Smith to meet the officers in front of the house, where he says he again told them about the BB gun.

“I told them that very loudly,” Smith said but they apparently did not heed his words.

Police spokesman Lt. Dave Parker has said there was no mention of a BB gun in recordings of the 911 call, which he reviewed personally, and not one of the officers involved in the incident reported being told anything about a BB gun.

Smith said he had watched as several officers in ballistic gear, including helmets, walked to the back of the house.

Parker said two separate groups of officers took up separate positions, one group was in the Smiths’ fenced backyard trying to conceal themselves next to the house and the other group was in an adjacent backyard. One officer from each group fired, he said.

“It was only a matter of minutes. When I heard gunshots, I didn’t make a conscious decision, but I ran to the backyard. I was physically stopped by a police officer,” Smith said.

Parker said the officers immediately began CPR on the elder Smith after they had shot him, and medics that arrived were soon there trying to save his life, but he was soon pronounced dead.

“When they wheeled him past me, I could see the gunshots in his chest, right over his heart. I knew. But I wasn’t going to accept it until somebody told me,” Russell Smith said in a statement.

The official word that his father had died didn’t come until he was been sitting alone in an interrogation room at the Anchorage Police Department for two close to hours, Smith said.

In an interview that lasted more than an hour followed, and Smith said he couldn’t go home because crime scene investigators were still poring over the house.

“I was taught if you need help, you call 911. But with the state of affairs in Anchorage right now, I’m more afraid of the police than anyone else,” Smith said.

Parker defended the officers actions of coarse and disputed key parts of what the younger Smith had said, specifically that he told many officer’s about a BB gun.

A police spokesman said he listened to a recording of the 911 call and did not hear any mention of a BB gun.

Detectives interviewed all of the officers that were involved in the incident, Parker said, and not one of them said Russell Smith told them his father had only a BB gun.

“Even if he had said that, you’d have to take that with a grain of salt and react to the situation as you perceive it,” Parker said.

“It doesn’t matter what he said. It matters what the officer is perceiving at the back of the house. And they perceived that they were being drawn upon with a real gun.”

The officers supposedly gave repeated orders to drop the gun, Parker said. They said that tried the “less-lethal” foam round and had no other option but to fire their guns, he said.

“It’s a tough deal. And our hearts go out to his family, as well as those officers who had to kill him,” Parker said. “Our main duty is to preserve life, and any time we use lethal force, we feel as though we’ve failed. But it is necessary in some circumstances and there are times when we’re given no other choice.”

Clint Campion who is the the assistant attorney general who determined the shooting was justified, he said he watched over the police investigation from the beginning, that he listened to audio from the 911 call as well as the communications between officers, and he also watched video of witnesses who were interviewed, including the police officers that were involved in this latest killing.

Campion also said his review also involved visiting the scene of the shooting and looking over pictures taken by a police photographer.

What the police presented in their investigation of the shooting of Harry Smith matched what Campion saw for himself, he stated.

“This is a homicide investigation,” Campion said clearing up the case, “I made a decision that I wasn’t going to file charges against anyone.”

Campion said he saw the police interview with the younger Smith as it happened and watched it twice more later, them listened to the 911 call several times.

But Campion refused to say if he heard any mention at all of the BB gun in the 911 call, saying that he is barred from discussing certain details pertaining to the case that have not been made public. He did acknowledge that Russell Smith appeared worried about what would happen to his father.

“Russell was allegedly concerned that his father might try to commit what’s called a ‘suicide by cop.’ That was very clearly conveyed to, and heard by the police officers on scene,” Campion said.

Campion referred all questions about whether the officers were told Smith had a BB gun back to police.

Dealing with what was a still-unfolding situation at the time, he said that it would be up to the officers to decide if they could rely on the information anyway.

“That’s a decision that the officers have to evaluate, what they’re being told and whether that matches what they’re seeing,” Campion said. “Just because somebody said something doesn’t mean it’s always true.”

Russell Smith said that he is still dealing with the aftermath and replaying his father’s death over and over in his mind. The family has decided to sell the house that the elder Smith lived in till he was shot, so he has gotten rid of many belongings and moved his things into a storage unit, he said.

“We had to throw away about 40 years worth of memories,” Smith said. “A house that has been collecting things for 40 years, you can only fit so many things inside of a storage unit.”
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Still, the loss doesn’t compare to his father fatal shooting and what Smith has called a lack of honor on the part of the Anchorage Police Department.

“Of course they can’t admit when they were wrong, that’s just part of the process. I really didn’t expect anything different,” he said. “It doesn’t change anything for me. There is nothing that is going to bring my father back. Nothing is going to piece my family back together.”

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Im researching the below link and PDF, as these attacks are launched regularly on targeted individuals, this could be relevant.

The IP addresses of these attacks should be court records, and should lead to individuals that have been targeted by the US government.

//www.justice.gov/usao-ak/pr/criminal-charges-filed-alaska-conjunction-seizure-websites-offering-ddos-hire-services

Pennsylvania man who operated one of the Internet’s longest-running online attack-for-hire or “booter” services was sentenced to five years probation today

DDoS attacks Targeted Individual

Corporate cyberstalking

dumbsmartass.org › tag › gangstalking › pagePosts about Gangstalking written by smartdumbass. … DDOS Attack Maps … Gangstalking is not a police or intelligence operation, it’s a terrorist gang fueled 

Cyber attacks and gangstalking

No Ordinary Stalking: a look at organized stalking and electronic harassment: DDoS attacks targeted individuals Book

Gangstalking, targeted individuals DDoS attacks

Gangstalking DDoS attacks: //www.reddit.com/r/Gangstalking/comments/3n7j71/organized_crime_only_computer_hacking_and_hosting/

Targeted Individuals DDoS attacks

Book: Targeted Individuals DDoS attacks

Gang Stalking is “community policing” aka “communist policing,” and it poses a threat to Democracy and public safety DDoS attacks

Even More DDoS attacks targeted individuals

I could go on, I think we can clearly see Homeland Security, FBI, FEMA, etc were behind this court case. TERRORIST CRIMINALS

Just curious if the call that led to this hackers arrest could be related to the pizzagate scandal. As we see the links between the CIA, FBI, drug running, sex trafficking and child trafficking this is a question worth asking. As authorities that are targeting civilians are allowed to operate at a criminal level, basically attacking targeted individuals in any way they decide, with no criminal repercussions, it is worth asking if along with the pay they receive for their criminal activity, is a benefit package included in this line of work?

Below: Ex FBI Ted Gunderson, spent over 28 years working for the FBI, he reported on many of the crimes committed by federal agencies untill his death.

The agencies that take part in the programs that surveil all US communications, smart phone devises, etc, of course also are able to surveille the devices of underage children, often in compromising positions.

With the huge number of sex crimes committed by the law enforcement community, there is no doubt that the surveillance allowed by the corrupt FISA courts, as well as the use of sting-ray devices by the FBI, and the militarized police force is often used in this manner.

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I can not remember the last time that I received any help from the A.P.D., I have always had a hard time even calling the police for a problem for I have had very little respect for them after growing up in a city like Anchorage.

I did however call them when in I believe 2015, a ex-girlfriend had drove across town drunk to see me at 12:30 in the morning. I was sitting up with my latest girlfriend, listening to music that night when there was a knock on my door. I answered the door and she said that she wanted to talk to me. I told her that we had nothing to talk about and that she could call me in the morning if she wanted. She then surprised me as she shoved her way into my home. There was a stack of floor tile directly behind me so she was able to shove me backwards over the tile, before I had a chance to rise to my feet again she had reached over to a table by the door and grabbed a pair of pliers (the first weapon that she could find), she then jumped on top of me as I was still laying on my back on the floor and the tiles that were there, she immediately started to stab at me with the pliers repeatedly.

I was able to block the repeated stabbing blows with my arms and rise up off the floor, (the girlfriend that I had at the time had by now ran to the safety of a nearby bedroom), which was a good idea as she was a very nice girl that did not need to be involved in a crazy situation such as this, furthermore she was a petite girl that could have done little to help me, I was able to push my attacker out the door.

This is one time that I put aside my views of the A.P.D. and called them to the scene for I thought it should be reported so that maybe this attacker would not return and attempt to kill me again. The Anchorage Police arrived and took a report, they went to the attackers residence and charged her with a DWI, assault with a deadly weapon, and unlawful entry I believe.

I received a order the next day to appear in Anchorage court for STALKING this women that showed up in the middle of the night to “talk” to me, I went to court where she had arrived with a lawyer and the case was postponed for her lawyer was personal friends with the Judge, I told the Judge that this was a complete waste of my time and that since the accusers lawyer was friends with her that when I returned to court I did not want to have her as a judge, by the time I was done speaking the two court police officers had moved across the court and now were surrounding me in a apparent effort to intimidate me.

I returned to court a second time and she arrived with yet another lawyer, he had a difficult time presenting his case for I had never called her or went anywhere around her in the two months that had passed since she had broken up with me, the truck she stated that she had seen me driving was a truck I neither had driven nor owned. when her lawyer finished and the case was basically over I spoke up and stated that I had something to say, the judge advised me that I did not have to say anything. I told the judge that I did wish to speak anyways, so I rose and stated that this had been a complete waste of my time and that if the court system had been doing their job, I would have never been in court for these two days anyways, I further stated that I would have probably tried to get a restraining order against this lady, but I did not know if I should get a restraining order against her or against the federal government for it was the Court system that she was effectively using to stalk me.

The judge had no comment and the stalking case against me was dismissed. When her court date arrived I was later informed that the Anchorage prosecutor had failed to appear in court as he was to busy on another case that day, the case was dismissed and I was told that no further action would be taken in this case.

I was very frustrated and contacted every official from the prosecutors office to the Governor of Alaska at that time. After months of complaining I did receive email correspondence from a prosecutor, basically asking me what I wanted them to do. This seemed to me to be a ignorant question for I obviously had wanted them to do their JOB. After what seemed to be about six months of fruitless emails between these state agencies I basically wrote them off as incompetent and put the case behind me. There was never any action taken against my attacker. (Court Transcripts of the stalking order against me should be readily available unless they have been “LOST”.)

In 2016 Anchorage has been rewarded for its lack of leadership with a record number of homicides, it is now one of the most violent towns in the USA. Murder, rape, violence and robberies are common place. This is not entirely a new problem for the city of Anchorage, and the cause is not entirely new either. You can go back to a police audit of the evidence room 15-20 years ago, where you found a large percentage of drugs, cash, valuables missing, presumably stolen by a long corrupt criminal police force that has came to rule the city as the mafia once the streets of Chicago. Having spent 49 years of my life in the city, it is a shame to leave my home.

Anchorage Alaska – USA Assault

Starting in 2012 when i had the website myfavoritemason.com, which was getting over 4000 hits per day, youtube videos that had reached 1.6 million hits in six months for my research into the Sandy Hook school shooting, I have been terrorized by the US government.

I was at the time and still am one of the two 9/11 grassroots organizers.

After being followed for years, phones tapped, internet hacked. A renewed assault began on/ or about 05/11/2016. Since that time i have been assaulted in just about every way possible, mentally and physically. . I have been institutionalized, my house constantly broken into, windows broke out of house, door kicked in, drugged, poisoned. My truck was stolen and my name was slandered. Any call for help from the Anchorage Police Department were in vain. I have had probably over $50,000.00 worth of belongings stolen. My arm broken. I was taken for a blood test and billed over $7000.00.

As I have been subjected to Homeland Security running drills and exercises in the Harris County Neighborhood before I was set up by police, and I was also drugged, poisoned, in 2016 in the time frame that the below incident took place, it has always been my belief that FEMA, Homeland Security was in fact trying to set me up for one of their terrorist drills, and/ or exercises.

After endless assaults I fled, leaving property and my house abandoned, to be sold. I lost my home and the state in which i have resided for over the last 49 years.

It did not take long to decide that i was a victim of electronic harassment/ gangstalking. Even with this knowledge I was left with no where to turn for who would believe that the United States Government would take such insane and inhumane actions against one of its own, for simply exercising their right of Freedom of Speech.

I refuse to give up, and this endless assault has gave me a reason to stand up for myself and any other Americans that face similar action.

I started on May 11th with a house that was paid for, that is now worth probably $50,000.00 less then when this began. I had one half acre of property, a tractor, heavy equipment roller, and thousands and thousands dollars worth of tools, furnishings, and belongings. I have lost all except for belongings that i was able to auction off for penny’s on the dollar. I fled my home with one suitcase and no cash. At my layover in Seattle Washington I was pulled out of a line of over two hundred people and subjected to a search in front of all (crotch included), then I had my hands swabbed to check for bomb residue.
This is the New World that we now live in. I am here online, doing what I can to spread the word of how our terrorist government is operating in hopes of saving other innocent Americans from having to endure this treatment that I have received.

Keith Lankford

More from the APD

January 24, 2017

Port of Anchorage: Failed Engineering Overseen By Anchorage Officials

The new port of Anchorage was the largest project was the largest project underway in the city of Anchorage Alaska. When the project was begun the completion date was set at 2011, that date has now been pushed back to 2021. With the city living on credit as its main source of income is property taxes (that are inflated as all the property has been overvalued to squeeze any extra cash that it can out of the cities residents), 2021 seems to be yet another date that will come and go without seeing this project completed.

The original price tag of $360 million has escalated to at least $1 billion dollars. With the price of oil well below the price that it takes to even break even the Alaskan economy is living on borrowed time, with that said anchorages seemingly transient population will soon be fleeing leaving the ballooned government that was created during it’s many years of abundant wealth from oil to slowly implode upon itself.

A city advisory commission is wanting a “Independent” review of all aspects of the design of the failed port. Whether the new port can even be built as designed is being questioned by engineers! A large percentage of the work that was done in 2010 was to dismantle construction that had just been completed a year before. Sheets of steel that were drove into Cook Inlet, (even though they were bending as the construction work was being done and not even fitting together as engineered) were then to be ripped up and lay as a demolished reminder of what a mess this project has now become. The steel piles that were used were supposed to hook one into the next down the entire length, creating a strong, interlocked structure.

At the time the port project was started, then senator of Alaska Mark Begich, was a supporter of the project but even he now has doubts about its feasibility. He has sought an accounting of the spending and an explanation of what went wrong with the construction.

“I am troubled by reports I have received of complications during this year’s construction season and of the potential financial ramifications for federal taxpayers and for other entities which have contributed funding for the expansion project,” the senator wrote in a Dec. 15 letter to the federal Maritime Administration, which is overseeing the project.

Alaskans might also be troubled with this, for it is their one billion dollars that will be spent and much of it seems to have been wasted in this failed project which seems to have had little oversight. By coincidence, Begich was the mayor of Anchorage at the time all properties in the city were escalated well beyond their worth, when all fines and fees in Anchorage were raised to bleed the people of Anchorage of any extra wealth that could be bled to feed the bloated government that has now been created. Passing bond after bond, with a populace that seemed to not realize that “bonds” were loans that one day would be called due. That day is approaching fast.

Ken Privratsky recently retired as an executive with Horizon Lines Inc., one of the two major shippers that dock at the port, and has been following the project for years. He stated “What’s becoming evident is we’ve got a real mess on our hands,” he said. Well that may be a understatement!

The port of Anchorage is crucial to every resident of the city as food, clothing, cars and trucks, just about everything that the city survives on comes through this very port. Without the port of Anchorage Residents of the city would be left struggling for just the essentials to survive.

Port Director Bill Sheffield, and also former Governor of Alaska pushed for the current design which was always questioned by engineers. The designed used was a bulkhead system, it was a patented design called (OPEN CELL SHEET PILE). The design consists of a series of horseshoe-shaped cells made of steel sheet pile, with gravel fill behind the dock face within each cell. When completed it would use over 1.5 miles of steel. Long tail walls would reach back toward shore to secure the structure.Instead of using a traditional dock on pilings this design would extend the Anchorage shore into the sea. The old port of Anchorage had parts of it that dated back to the 1964 “good Friday Earthquake”. It was deteriorating and costly to maintain. The replacement of it began over a decade ago and would add over 135 acres of new land to Anchorage.

The project would have accommodated much larger ships, a new port administration building, staging areas for the military, a rail line, and security checkpoints, (which of course have been completed). It would also have added new cruise ship and passenger ferry terminals but even these have been cut from the project yet the cost goes up and up.

In 2009 the work consisted largely of inspecting year-old sheet pile, ripping out damaged sections, replacing damaged cells and installing pads for construction cranes. No new sections were added. Some of the work that was planned for 2011 will include replacing the damaged steel.

In the state of Alaska the port serves 85 percent of the population. One excuse for delays related to endangered belugas have slowed the work. The firm overseeing the construction, Integrated Concepts and Research Corp., or ICRC. Shippers are unhappy at the delays. Horizon Lines Inc. bought three new giant cranes for $25 million to unload containers. But that area won’t be ready for four years. “So we’re selling the cranes,” said Ken Privratsky

Without the help of the late U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, and with a general anti-earmark mood in Congress, Anchorage’s ability to secure the money beyond what has been already spent on the port has taken a big hit. Sheffield insists he will come up with the more than extra money needed to finish the job. He says he has been able to patch together $50 million to $60 million a year through port revenue, loans, state and federal grants, and federal earmarks to keep the work going.

Port officials have stated that “Although these setbacks are frustrating, they are not insurmountable and the project remains on track,” Once done, engineers say, the dock will stand for 50 years and its life span can extend far beyond that with heavy maintenance.

It seems as if no one is stepping forward to take the blame for the port project’s problems. While the city owns and manages the port, in 2003 it gave the lead contracting role to the federal Maritime Administration, which had never run a port-construction project before. That agency hired Integrated Concepts and Research Corp. as project manager. ICRC contends it properly carried out its role as project manager by uncovering problems. It is making changes, including hiring additional staff as on-site inspectors rather than using subcontractors. In a city that wants a inspection and permit for even a electrical outlet installed in a privately owned and paid for home, ( No home in Anchorage is actually ever owned by anyone, even if it has been fully paid for, for with the outrages property taxes, there is always a cost that would be close to renting a apartment to live under the illusion that your house is or will ever truly be yours,)it seems unbelievable that they are not capable of even inspecting their own projects or work. The Maritime Administration says it’s done what was required in its 2003 agreement with the city. “While we have had unexpected complications with the installation, it is not likely to have an impact on the actual construction material life expectancy once the installation problems are resolved,” the Maritime Administration says.

In his Dec. 27 response to Begich’s letter, the head of the Maritime Administration said he too was concerned about the damage. The federal agency ordered additional inspections and has committed more staff members in Washington, D.C., and Anchorage to the project, Maritime administrator David Matsuda wrote.

Port Director Bill Sheffield who directed this project stated: “We’re not happy. We’re disappointed. We’ve lost some time on the schedule,” the project is experiencing delays and increased costs because of required shutdowns related to protections for endangered beluga whales, Sheffield said.

Privratsky, the retired Horizon Lines senior vice president, said there wasn’t sufficient oversight of the work in 2009. “That entire project is suspect because of that,” he said. “We’re discovering some of the warts. Unfortunately I think that the jury is still out on the extent of it.” I am not sure just who this jury is, but in the municipality of anchorage the officials seem to be the prosecutors, judges and jury’s which leaves a lot to be said about anything done by the politicians that run this city.

Port officials stated the project is particularly challenging because ships still must be able to dock at the old port while the new one is being built alongside. The work must be phased in over a longer time than planned initially to ensure ships can access temporary berths, officials said. Apparently some of these things were not thoroughly thought through before beginning the project. Additionally, “In a situation like this, every party stands up and says ‘it’s not my fault,’ ” ICRC chief engineer Brett Flint told the Assembly Port Committee last week. “In reality, the truth probably turns out to be somewhere in the middle.”

When Sheffield first began the project it was going to add 85 acres to the port (50 acres less than what is now planned) and the estimated cost was about $150 million. “It’s a very attractive alternative for us,” Sheffield said at the time. “It’s bigger and it’s millions cheaper, and money is getting harder to come by now.” An equivalent conventional dock would have cost an estimated $230 million, he contended.

A local engineering firm had submitted a design for a smaller conventional dock estimated to cost around $100 million. It could have been completed by 2005.The winning design came from the firm of Peratrovich, Nottingham & Drage Inc., another local firm that now goes by PND Engineers Inc.

One further problems that were apparently not accounted for was that the sheets of steel are driven into the seabed with giant hammers and vibratory machines operated by construction cranes. The sheets are as long as 90 feet, of which as much as 15 feet is buried in the clay, muck and gravel. The metal is one-half-inch thick, and the steel sheets can bend like a bad nail if they hit hard soil or rock.

Of just 66 cells targeted for inspection, 28 showed some damage, some of it dramatic, and three more were said to need further review. Another 26 cells, at the north end of the new barge berths were visible at low tide and are sound, port officials say.
Some of the sheets were “ripped and curled out like a corkscrew about 3 feet above mud line,” in many cases, the joints had separated. Gravel packed behind the steel cells to create new land was spilling out. In some spots, sinkholes were forming.
Further inspections targeted the walls reaching back to shore. They are packed in gravel on both sides. Hundreds of those sheets had to be pulled up for inspection. Out of 2,611 sheets examined at one point it was revealed that there were 635 damaged sheets.

Lynn Dokoozian, a program manager with ICRC told the Assembly Port Committee, “A lot of people have opinions, but they are not necessarily based upon fact and a rigorous evaluation of the data. And that’s still to come.” Stiff clays, hard pile driving, methods used by the contractor or other things, (could have apparently caused some problems) Dokoozian said. “So it could be a combination of a number of causes, not just a single cause,” she said. She maintained: “We know that the structure can be built.” Which is always a good thing if you are taking on a building project.

The contractor that was chosen to install the sheet pile in 2009 was QAP. A different contractor, West Construction Co., took over the work and pre-drilled before hammering in the steel pile. The port says the West-installed sheets, replacing damaged ones, have been problem-free, proving that the design will work when construction is done properly. QAP, which used a subcontractor to drive the pile, hasn’t returned repeated calls.

ICRC has told the city the Army Corps of Engineers did an independent review, But the Corps says it never was asked to sign off on the structure and that it didn’t. “This review has nothing to do with the engineering aspects of the project itself,” Koenig said. “Whether the project fails or does not fail has nothing to do with this review.”

The city Assembly in March 2008 agreed to let the port borrow up to $75 million. The city is not guaranteeing that loan, officials say. When the project is complete, this debt will be rolled into a bond that will be paid off through port revenue, Sheffield said. The city has put in more than $49 million so far, from the loan and port revenue.

Port officials say the project was designed to be built in phases. A new berth for barges is already generating a little revenue. But a second barge berth is one of the areas with the most damage, and much of it must be redone. Temporary berths for the cargo ships are in progress. One of the last steps will involve tearing out the old dock and building new, permanent berths for the big ships. All of the phases don’t have to be built, the port says. “Each phase is independently stable” and can stand even if the money for all the phases never comes through, according to the port.

Although Horizon wanted a bigger dock to accommodate bigger cranes for bigger ships. But Totem Ocean Trailer Express Inc., or TOTE, another major cargo shipper into Anchorage, doesn’t use cranes to off-load trailers from its ships. It has been vocal from the beginning that it didn’t need a bigger dock — and didn’t expect to pay for it.

Totem Ocean Trailers Express Inc. stated that ther cargo ships have had to leave the dock early during extreme low tides because of construction-related silt in its berth. “As a tenant here, we can’t afford for it to remain like this. We need this thing to get funded and get finished,” said George Lowery, TOTE’s Alaska director.

Former Gov. Bill Sheffield retired as director of the Port of Anchorage as of Jan. 15, but will get a $60,000-a-year consulting contract from the city, Mayor Dan Sullivan said Thursday. The 83-year-old Sheffield has been port director since 2001. He has been at the center of controversy recently because of serious construction problems and escalating costs for expansion and renovations of the port. He still is helping Anchorage as he serves on the Board of Directors for the Alaska Railroad.

2015-2016 Board of Directors as pictured, left to right:

Board Chair: Jon Cook, Chief Financial Officer, Airport Equipment Rentals, Inc.

Board Vice-Chair: Governor Bill Sheffield, Consultant

Marc Luiken, Commissioner, Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities

John Binkley, President, Alaska Cruise Association

Chris Hladick, Commissioner, Alaska Department of Commerce, Community & Economic Development

Linda Leary, Transportation & Telecom Consultant

Jack Burton, Track Inspector, Alaska Railroad Corporation

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