Juneau Road to Nowhere
The Juneau Road is a very bad idea.
Courtesy of Mark Gnadt, Southeast Alaska Conservation Council
Bridges and roads to nowhere are in the spotlight this fall, and the Juneau Road is one of the worst.
The Juneau Access “Road to Nowhere” would cost more than $400 million, but it would not connect to another road or town.
On June 18, 2008, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued the last required permit for the proposed project that would extend the existing Juneau road 51 miles and require a new ferry terminal at the Katzehin River, over 70 miles farther from Juneau than the existing ferry terminal. Despite crossing this last regulatory hurdle, Governor Palin indicated that the Alaska Department of Transportation (DOT) will not begin construction this summer and will wait until she is assured that resolution of the lawsuit will not alter or halt the project. SEACC, Lynn Canal Conservation, Sierra Club Juneau Group, Skagway Marine Access Committee, and the Natural Resources Defense Council filed litigation in 2006. The case has been briefed and, as of October 7, 2008, is still awaiting a decision from the judge.
In May, Governor Palin told DOT Commissioner Leo von Scheben that the Juneau project “is not a priority” for her administration. In addition to the litigation, the Governor is concerned about the significant and rising costs of the project. According to von Scheben, “The governor has repeatedly said that her administration will proceed in a fiscally conservative and commonsense manner, including [the Juneau road/ferry] project, particularly since federal highway funding is estimated to decline.” Building a road with a price tag that increased over $100 million in less than two years, that ends without reaching its destination and that replaces Alaska’s most profitable ferry run would be neither a fiscally conservative nor commonsense decision. Despite her reservations, Governor Palin has not made a decision to cancel the proect.
Many officials have questioned the validity of the project’s current $374 million cost estimate. SEACC encourages the governor to follow her common sense and fiscal instincts by canceling this project or at minimum requesting an accurate, independent cost analysis before moving forward. The Central Region of Alaska DOT just required an independent cost analysis of the similarly controversial and expensive Knik Arm Bridge project in Anchorage, and Washington State requires an independent cost analysis with both best and worst case scenarios for all transportation projects costing over $100 million.
