Lynn Canal Highway
The Lynn Canal Highway, or Juneau Access Road, is a proposed road between Skagway and City and Borough of Juneau, the capital of the U.S. state of Alaska. Such a road, if built, would connect Juneau to the Alaskan highway network at a cost of $520 million. The current plan of the Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities (DOT&PF) calls for extending "The Road" northward from Juneau to Skagway, connecting with the Klondike Highway and thus with the main continental road system. The corridor crosses Berners Bay LUD II which is a congressionally designated roadless area created by the Tongass Timber Reform Act (TTRA). The act permits crossing LUD IIs when the governor of the State of Alaska designates routes as essential transportation corridors. The proposed road skirts the shore of a northwestern section of Alaska's Inside Passage, which was recently named a National Scenic Waterway.
History
For nearly 50 years, Juneau has been served by the Alaska Marine Highway ferry system. Starting in the early 1990s, the Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities (DOT&PF) initiated the Juneau Access Improvements Project, intended to improve surface access between Juneau and communities further north. Because of the proposed routing, DOT&PF needed to obtain approvals and permits from several federal agencies and obtain an environmental impact statement. A draft of this report was issued in 1997 followed by a period of public comment and analysis. This process was halted in 2000 by former governor Tony Knowles due to the high costs of the project. The next governor, Frank Murkowski, ordered the completion of the environmental impact statement in 2002, resulting in a supplemental draft EIS in January 2005 which was finalized in January 2006.
Alignment along the preferred route incurred a loss of 70 acres of wetlands, 68 acres of old-growth forest, the possibility of up to a 26% reduction in the brown bear habitat, and disturbances to bald eagle nesting territory. The report was disputed by the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, who claimed that the report violated several federal environmental acts by failing to propose improvements to the existing ferry system, and DOT&PF intervened as a defendant. In 2009, the court ordered the environmental impact statement to be rewritten. The state lost its options to appeal the ruling and in 2011 began work on a new environmental impact statement expected to be completed in 2014.
Proposed benefits
Proponents of the Juneau Access Road concept state that the road would bring 80,000 drive-in visitors in addition to the 895,000 (2005) visitors arriving each summer by cruise ship to Juneau. A state study says that Juneau should expect 900 to 3,400 additional recreational vehicles in a road's first year. A cursory search of Frommer's and the Tongass National Forest website suggests approximately 169 camping sites in and around Juneau as of July, 2008. (Spruce Meadows RV Park, Auke Village Campground, Mendenhall Lake Campground, Savikko RV Park and Eagle Beach State Park.) A 150 day tourist season and an average three day stay would suggest a potential overcrowding and capacity issue on some high traffic occasions presenting an added opportunity for economic development in the area.
In addition, a road would secure Juneau as the capital city (since the capital has twice been voted to be moved nearer Anchorage, this is an ever-present fear in the minds of many Juneauites that live in a city they feel would hardly exist without state bureaucratic presence), that the increased tourism via buses and RV'ers will boost Juneau's economy, that a road would make Juneau the top sea port in Southeast Alaska, that it would provide more readily available healthcare to residents of Skagway and Haines, and allow Juneauites to drive north instead of catching a ferry or plane.
See also
- Juneau, Alaska#Juneau Access Project
References
- The Juneau Empire - The Divided Line
- Tongass National Forest Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement