Extremely Expensive “Road to Nowhere” Still On Track in Alaska;

Sister to “Bridge to Nowhere” projects

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Lois Epstein (Anchorage), 907.929.9372

Steve Vick (Haines), 907.314.0721

Jan Wrentmore (Skagway), 907.612.0702

Anchorage, AK – Federal taxpayer dollars spent on a recently-exposed "road to nowhere" in Alaska pale in comparison to the money needed to continue the Juneau "road to nowhere" project. This 51-mile proposed road through steep, mountainous terrain will end at a ferry terminal at the uninhabited Katzehin River delta, approximately 18 wilderness miles from the nearest road in Skagway. The cost of the Juneau Road project keeps rising and is currently estimated at a conservative $374 million, nearly all of which would come from the federal government.

"If people are upset about roads to nowhere, then the Juneau Road deserves notice," said Steve Vick of Haines, Alaska, another destination reachable from the proposed Katzehin ferry terminal. In 2005, Vick swam the frigid 90+ mile distance from Skagway to the current ferry terminal 13 miles north of Juneau to call attention to the proposed road.

"The Katzehin River is beautiful, but it’s not a $400 million destination," said Jan Wrentmore, owner of the gold rush era Red Onion Saloon in Skagway, a popular tourist attraction.

Like Alaska's Gravina and Knik Arm "bridges to nowhere," the proposed Juneau Road is a major Alaska project which received an earmark in the 2005 federal transportation bill. To date, the Alaska Department of Transportation (ADOT) has spent roughly $24 million in federal money planning the project which will move the ferry terminal 77 additional miles farther from Juneau. ADOT expects it will take twelve years to complete the project, assuming federal money is available.

The Juneau Road will be one of the most dangerous and expensive road projects in the country. There are 112 geotechnical hazards – approximately five per mile – in just 22 miles of the road including rockfall, debris flow, and landslide areas. The cost of the project likely will rise substantially since the state has not completed the technical work needed to determine the road's precise route, nor has it determined if extremely expensive safety structures like tunnels and snow sheds must be built. The Federal Highway Administration predicts the road will have a small number of users and will be closed over a month each year due to avalanches.

According to Lois Epstein, an engineer and Director of the watchdog group Alaska Transportation Priorities Project, "Alaska needs to make judicious use of federal transportation dollars and the extremely costly and unnecessary Juneau 'road to nowhere' does not do so." She added that "with the state's extensive maintenance backlog, federal transportation dollars would be better spent on maintaining and upgrading existing Alaska transportation infrastructure."

The other Alaska "road to nowhere" in the news lately is the $26 million Gravina Island "road to nowhere" completed in September (see http://www.newsweek.com/id/159421). This road leads to a beach where the now-cancelled Gravina "bridge to nowhere" from Ketchikan would have ended. Alaska's history of support for bridges and roads to nowhere is shown clearly on a new website: www.akbridgesandroadstonowhere.org.

A November 2007 statewide poll (see http://www.aktransportation.org/documents/pollresults-11-19-07.pdf) showed that Alaskans prefer by a 79% to 11% margin that the state spend money on local transportation repairs, maintenance, and upgrades rather than the Juneau Road project.

To see a ten minute documentary on the Juneau Road route's terrain, with video collected by two rock climbers who traversed the route, click on http://www.akbridgesandroadstonowhere.org/steep.html. The Lynn Canal swim website is http://www.lynnswim.org.