Stretching ninety miles along Alaska’s Inside Passage, the Lynn Canal is North America’s deepest fjord. It’s waters were the lifeblood of the Klondike Gold Rush, and now offer a window into the wild that defines Alaska. The Lynn Canal also ties the people of Alaska’s “Southeast” together. It is their highway.

But for over three decades, the fight over a new highway, a land-based road running alongside the canal, has divided communities and left the future of the Lynn Canal in doubt.

Blue Highway begins as a film about a kayak trip tracing the historic Lynn Canal travels of John Muir, but becomes a study of both sides of the battle over the proposed Juneau Access Road. After more than 30 years of debate, is there anything left to say, and can two sides separated by environmental, economic and cultural concerns ever come together?

New cost estimates boosting the Juneau Access Project to half a billion dollars has moved the road into the realm of “mega-projects,” a designation bringing with it new federal regulations.

A Federal Highway analysis of the 50.8 mile road up the east side of Lynn Canal is estimated to cost $491 million to complete, according to a Federal Highway Administration agency. So far $25 million has been spent.

The state’s estimate was somewhat lower at a total cost of $474 million.

The mega-project designation is designed to protect the federal government, which funds most projects of such scope, from bad or mismanaged projects that could spiral out of control.

The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities is proposing a Juneau access road, but it is currently held up in court after a federal judge ruled the Environmental Impact Statement failed to adequately look at ferry options.

DOT project manager Reuben Yost said the designation is not a surprise.

“We knew that sooner or later we were going to get close to or trip that mark,” he said.

Among the new regulations are development of a project management plan and more federal involvement in the project, said Lois Epstein of the Alaska Transportation Priorities Project.

“They’re going to be scrutinizing the management, and scrutinizing the cost numbers more closely as well,” she said.

It is not something that Alaska projects usually face, Yost and Epstein said.

“I haven’t dealt with many projects that are this costly,” Epstein said.

The Juneau Access Project now exceeds Ketchikan’s Gravina Island “Bridge to Nowhere” in cost. Other likely mega-projects in Alaska include the Knik Arm Bridge and the proposed freeway connecting the Seward and Glenn Highways, both in the Anchorage area.

Yost said that because state officials knew they were getting close to the half billion dollar level, they knew they would need a cost estimate that would win approval from top federal highway officials. Yost said that was one of the reasons they chose the federal Highway Administration’s Western Federal Lands Center to conduct an outside cost estimate.

It is likely the federal agency would have confidence in its own subsidiary agency’s cost estimates,” he said.

In Alaska, project management plans are used for even much smaller projects, Yost said.

It is also not clear whether Juneau Access will remain a mega-project. A federal court ruling that eliminated the current preferred alternative – the road up Lynn Canal to the ferry terminal at the Katzehin River – could result in a much smaller project.

• Contact reporter Pat Forgey at 523-2250 or patrick.forgey@juneauempire.com.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Juneau road project will cost the state nearly half a billion dollars.

The Department of Transportation and Public Facilities released a new cost estimate for Lynn Canal Highway and Katzehin Shuttle System.

DOT now says the project will cost $449 million, which is less than the Western Federal Land Division of the Federal Highway Administration’s estimate of $491 million.

Both estimates are based on designs done at the end of last year and reflect an increase in costs due to the increase in construction prices as well as changes to the design.

The project is currently on hold while the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals hears a request from the state to conduct more studies.

To date, every single problematic aspect of building the Juneau access road has a sound and valid solution to it. I agree with Gov. Sarah Palin’s statement while she was running for governor: “I do not understand why anybody would not want a road.” There must be some hidden agenda in the mindset of the anti-road group that we mere mortals are unaware of. Perhaps they are afraid of the inbound traffic on what would become the world’s most beautiful road?

The pro-road people have continually been put on the defensive side of this argument, as they fend off one potential problem after the next. What comes next? The defense of the endangered left-handed tree frog’s habitat? The question should not be should we have a road, but why we didn’t get one 50 years ago.

Transportation is the life blood of any community. Comparing ferry boats to road systems is like comparing apples and oranges. A ferry boat’s service is like a blood transfusion. A road is like an intact vein or major artery. When we discuss the road issue, we are talking about the very survival of Juneau. Even if they move the capital, we have a chance of survival as a viable community with a road, whereas without one we’ll become a ghost town for summer tourists to visit.

Since we pro-roaders continue to be on the defensive side of this argument, perhaps some of you who are undecided on the issues will keep an open mind to the matter and focus on the end product of having an access road. My reasons are numerous, although I am not anti ferry boat. In fact, the road will help the ferry system, mainly be eliminating the need for up to two ferries to ply the Lynn Canal route, which should result in better ferry service for all SE Alaska. If two brand new ferries were built today, in 50 years they would have to be recycled into razor blades, whereas a road would continue to service everyone.

I have followed with interest the actions for a second crossing here in Juneau. Have you ever wondered why the second crossing is a planned bridge instead of a new ferry crossing Gastineau Channel? The same reasoning applies to the access road. Let common sense prevail.

Mark S. Patterson
Tee Harbor

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