T BAILEY completes first loadout for Port of Alaska Modernization Project

December 1, 2025 | News

The first barge loadout for the T BAILEY project is in the books, hauling countless pounds of steel pilings from the Port of Anacortes up to the Port of Alaska. 

Earlier this fall, local manufacturer T BAILEY transported these steel pilings from Highway 20 to Pier 2 using the designated heavy-haul route. T
BAILEY is using Pier 2 as a fabrication site and shipping point for the project, welding together 230-foot sections that are then loaded onto barges bound for Alaska. This work is part of the Port of Alaska Modernization Project (PAMP). 

From now until February 2027, several more barges will be sailing up to Alaska via the M5 Marine Highway, a U.S. Department of Transportation designated marine highway route that follows the Pacific Ocean coastal waters. Connecting major ports from California up to Alaska, the M5 serves as a water-based alternative to the busy Interstate 5 freeway, aiming to reduce congestion, emissions, and road maintenance by moving cargo via the waterways.  

It takes a village to make long-term, complex projects like this a reality. Thirty-eight crew members, composed of staff from T BAILEY, Manson Construction, Metro Ports, and International Longshore and Warehouse Union, are needed for each loadout. It’s thanks to these many capable hands that this first loadout went off without a hitch. 

Keeping congestion off the road, supporting jobs in our community, reducing trucking emissions, and ensuring our waterfront stays working. That sounds like a triple-bottom-line win-win-win to us. 

Check out the links below to learn more about the M5 Marine highway and the PAMP: 

M5 Marine Highway: https://www.maritime.dot.gov/grants/marine-highways/marine-highway  

PAMP: https://modernization.portofalaska.com/