The federal government will begin work next summer on a new port of entry at the Alaska-Canada border south of Tok. The $180 million facility will be able to handle the growing volume of cross-border traffic more quickly and securely.
The new Alcan Land Port of Entry will be built on the same site as the existing 53-year-old facility near Milepost 1222 of the Alaska Highway. But the new facility will be larger and able to accommodate more tourists and other travelers, as well as the growing amount of commercial truck traffic entering the state through the only 24/7 year-round border crossing into the Interior.
“It is such a critical pathway for those trucks to get in and bring supplies in,” said Christi Chidester, a spokesperson for the General Services Administration or GSA, the federal agency that’s overseeing the project.
“We’re just trying to figure out how we can get those trucks through quicker and get those goods and supplies to the stores and the people that are waiting to purchase them much faster,” she said.
The new facility will provide greater capacity to inspect all that traffic more quickly, and new technology to detect and prevent smuggling, said Aaron Evanson, the GSA’s project manager.
“The intent is to have dedicated lanes for commercial versus personally operated vehicles, to allow for a much smoother transition through the port building itself,” Evanson said.
The project will upgrade the entire port of entry, Evanson said.
“We’re going to do a phased redevelopment of the entire site,” he said. “So that will include everything from the inspection building to new houses, new community support buildings, like a fitness center and a kind of community center … Because it’s so remote.”
The port of entry is located about 110 miles south of Tok. The existing facility doesn’t have a building big enough to accommodate a semi tractor-trailer, so in the winter Border Protection and Customs agents sometimes must direct truck drivers to continue on to Fairbanks, 300 miles to the north, to get to a facility where a Customs agent can inspect the cargo.
“We’re excited to get them new facilities and maintaining the flow of traffic, allow people to get in and out faster,” Evanson said. “And more than anything, maintain the safety of our borders with improved technology and improved security.”
The GSA completed work in October on a final environmental impact statement and can now move ahead on the project. Evanson said the agency will award a construction manager contract in February. Design work on the facility should be done a year later, in April 2026. And then construction will begin in phases, mostly during the warmer months.
“So we’re going to be doing specific parts of the project and then waiting for winter to do its thing, and then starting back over in the spring again,” he said.
Evanson said the project is scheduled to be completed six years later, by the fall of 2031.
The project’s estimated cost ranges from $170 million to $190 million, he said.
Tim Ellis is a reporter at KUAC in Fairbanks.
