The Governor of Alaska has asked Congress for nearly $300 million dollars to build the Juneau Access Road. This costly and controversial project would require removal of miles of pristine coastline along the Inside Passage’s Lynn Canal, the longest and deepest fjord in North America. Taxpayers for Commonsense, in its report, Roads to Ruin, call this road one of the “biggest transportation boondoggles in the country”.
New! In August of 2005, the Alaska State Department of Transportation announced that the proposed Juneau Road will no longer link Juneau with the continental road system. Instead, the State is pushing a revised plan to pave 50 miles of the Lynn Canal, stopping 18 miles short of the next town, Skagway. Travelers will then have to board a ferry to reach a continental road system. For hundreds of millions of dollars, the State of Alaska wants to “extend the dead end”.
Here are the reasons:
LACK OF LOCAL SUPPORT
The communities of Haines and Skagway in Upper Lynn Canal have consistently opposed the road, asking for improved ferry service. In the last referendum vote on the issue, Juneau residents voted AGAINST a road and FOR ferry service.
A LONG, DANGEROUS DRIVE
The Juneau Road would have a “very high” avalanche danger rating. The State estimates that avalanches will keep the road closed for at least one month out of every year. In addition to these dangers, drivers will also have to contend with icy freeze-thaw conditions typical in Southeast Alaska while navigating a winding roadway along steep cliffs.
Once a traveler arrives at the Katzehin terminal they may have to wait hours or even over night for the unreserved shuttle ferry. When wait times for ferries are included it will actually take longer to travel between Juneau and Haines under DOT’s proposed plan as compared with travel aboard the existing fast ferry.
In the over 30 years of operation, there have been no safety-related deaths on board Alaska’s ferry system.
Photo courtesy of Southeast Alaska Conservation Council
ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION
Almost a million visitors sail through the Inside Passage each year on cruise ships and on the Alaska Marine Highway to view the spectacular Tongass National Forest. The Lynn Canal, one of the world’s deepest fjords, is a perennial favorite. Instead of wilderness, visitors would view trucks and RVs lumbering along what one resident called “a horizontal strip mine.”
The road will put a ring of pavement around Berners Bay, a congressionally protected wild land treasured for its scenic value. Home to moose, bears, whales, beaver, salmon, sea lions, herring and bald eagles, Berners Bay is a unique national treasure.
The proposed road would come within half a mile of 88 bald eagle nests and skirt two major Steller sea lion haulouts. One of these sea lion “beaches,” the Gran Point haulout, has been designated as critical habitat under the Endangered Species Act.
WASTE OF TAXPAYER DOLLARS
Despite a brand new $40 million ferry for the Lynn Canal, the road supporters want another $250 million (or more) of public money to build the Juneau Road. In the summer of 2005 Congress passed SAFETEA-LU, the pork-laden transportation bill highly criticized by the national media and taxpayer groups. The bill contained a $15 million set-aside for the Juneau Road. The rest of the project would be paid for with state and/or federal dollars.
According to the Department of Transportation, funding the Juneau Road could cause the delay or elimination of other transportation projects currently in the State’s budget.
The Department of Transportation has a poor record for accurately estimating the cost of similar mega-projects. The Whittier Tunnel actually cost $89 million, even though DOT officials originally estimated it would come in at $48 million. The department hasn’t even begun construction of the proposed Gravina Bridge in Ketchikan, and already that project has risen 37% to a whopping $315 million.
The State has argued that roads are cheaper to maintain than ferries. The latest DOT study, however, found that the Juneau Road will cost the state 45% more over a 30-year period than continuing with the current ferry service in the Lynn Canal when all of the costs are considered, including construction and refurbishment costs, operating costs, and revenues.
According to the Department of Transportation, building the road will not result in any significant economic development for Alaska. The only growth will be in the amount of Recreational Vehicles trying to squeeze into Juneau. DOT predicts the number of RVs in town could quadruple in the first year the road is completed.
courtesy: http://www.juneauroad.com/facts.html
