Your Comments Needed!

Send the Highway to Highway (H2H) project leaders your comments.

It takes a minute.  You can copy and paste.  We want to make it as easy as possible for you to submit your comments to the Highway to Highway project planners because right now it's crucial they hear from the community.  This is an enormous project that will have tremendous impact on the Fairview and downtown neighborhoods, as well as set the precedent for other future transportation development in Anchorage - please take a minute and submit your comments here.

The H2H project team needs to hear that the community wants transportation infrastructure that supports:

• improved public health, including more walking and bicycling
  
• affordable housing near jobs
• cleaner air
• long term economic growth
• improved neighborhoods

These important elements are missing from the project’s purpose and need statement, and screening criteria.  Brief comments from the community citing these as important will make a difference - tell your friends, especially folks who live in Fairview, Mountain View and downtown to speak up!

Take a quick look at the following background info and feel free to copy and paste:

• The H2H project will cost $1 billion in an era when transportation dollars are becoming more and more limited. This will be to the detriment of other transportation improvements, such as increasing safety on the Seward Highway and increasing public transportation.

• Anchorage's Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP) states that a freeway linking the New Seward and Glenn Highways will be congested within twenty years of being built. The congestion problem that the project will supposedly solve will only worsen over time, bringing air quality and neighborhoods down with it.

• Thousands of residents contributed to the Anchorage 2020 plan consisting of improved transit, public transportation, and non-automobile options for navigating the city, and this vision should be reflected in the Highway to Highway project - we should not be planning for a freeway.

• Cities nationwide are now undergoing very complicated, costly measures in order to remove 1950s style freeways that are now commonly viewed as a hindrance to efficient transit.  In Anchorage we have a fantastic opportunity, via H2H, to learn from mistakes made in the Lower 48 and build a viable transportation system from the ground up.  This can be accomplished by evaluating Land Use, Transportation, Air Quality (LUTRAQ) alternatives in the H2H Environmental Impact Statement, which ties in multiple design principles to support diverse mobility needs.

• Using Land Use, Transportation, Air Quality (LUTRAQ) alternatives within Highway to Highway's environmental process will ensure a final product that is highly valued and relevant to the needs of Alaskans living, working, or traveling through Anchorage. 

• LUTRAQ promotes infrastructural improvements such as infill and redevelopment, public transportation, and redesigned streets that will facilitate increased community-wide use of one of Anchorage's favorite assets - our trails system - and, in a sense, extend this system to promote walking and biking in the project area. 

• Considering the high price tag of the project we can reasonably expect to utilize highly qualified LUTRAQ professionals to guide the process of identifying sensible long-term solutions for the community.  With the right combination of LUTRAQ experts, LUTRAQ alternatives, experienced and motivated H2H staff, and community input we are confident the Highway to Highway project can set an excellent precedent for future development in Anchorage

 

This is the project timeline:

 

 

A freeway is too expensive.  A freeway is going to be congested again just years after completion.  A freeway will have a negative impact on air quality.  Keep these concepts in mind as you say your piece, and remember that as other cities are spending billions undoing their freeways Anchorage has an opportunity to get it right!  The project team has worked hard to create an open forum for informing the public and reviewing your comments.  Your input matters - submit your thoughts here!