Chilkat Valley News - Serving Haines and Klukwan, Alaska since 1966

After crunching numbers, updating studies and considering an additional alternative, the Alaska Department of Transportation is still convinced building a 50-mile road from Juneau to the Katzehin River is the best option for transportation in the Lynn Canal.

DOT released its delayed Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement Sept. 18, a nearly 700-page document identifying the $574 million road project as its preferred alternative.

In addition to 700 pages of main text, the document includes nearly 50 appendices, many of them hundreds of pages long.

The SEIS is DOT’s response to the U.S. District Court striking down its original environmental impact statement in 2009. The court determined the document was invalid for not fully considering an alternative that would improve ferry service in the region using existing ferry assets.

That alternative includes continuation of mainline service in the Lynn Canal, using the two new day boats, improving the vehicle and passenger staging areas at the Auke Bay and Haines terminals, and expanding the Haines terminal.

Unlike the “no action” alternative, the existing assets option would keep the Malaspina online as a summer shuttle after the second day boat is brought online. It would also reduce fares by 20 percent and extend hours of operation for the reservations call center.

Of all the alternatives, the east-side road “would create the largest economic benefits to the region,” DOT said.

According to the plan, construction of the road would create 60 traffic-related jobs in Haines and cause the population to rise by 90 people by 2020.

“Improved access in Lynn Canal would allow for better movement of goods and people to and within the northern reaches of Southeast Alaska, resulting in better connections among the economies of Juneau, Haines, Skagway, and Whitehorse,” the plan reads.

“As access is improved, independent visitors could shift their travel patterns, perhaps spending more time and money in currently remote communities in Southeast Alaska.”

According to the plan’s Socioeconomic Effects Technical Report, the road would lead to increased visitor spending in Haines. It acknowledges, however, that some of this would be offset by Haines residents spending more money in Juneau.

“Because goods and services are often less expensive in Juneau and because Juneau has a wider selection of goods and services, a high level of economic ‘leakage’ already occurs. Improved access to Juneau would result in more leakage from the Haines-area economy as more local residents take advantage of Juneau’s better-developed retail and service sectors. This also means improved access would play a role in reducing the cost of living in Haines,” the plan reads.

“Certain Haines businesses would benefit by improved access, while others might see a decline in business. Businesses that serve the visitor market, such as motels and hotels, restaurants, gift shops, convenience stores, and gas stations, would see an increase in business as a result of an overall increase in traffic. Stores that already compete with Juneau retailers, such as grocery, clothing, hardware, and lumber supply stores, are likely to see some decline in business as Haines residents take advantage of better access to Juneau.”

  The socioeconomic report estimates the road would bring $6.9 million in additional visitor spending annually in 2020 and would generate $380,000 in additional sales tax revenue in Haines.

Plans for the east-side road require construction of several snow sheds and a protective berm for the ferry approach road. The proposed route navigates 41 avalanche paths, and a mitigation plan for avalanche hazards includes the release of unstable snow with explosives during highway closures.

The road plan would also require 32 acres of unvegetated intertidal and subtidal marine habitat to be filled or dredged. All anadramous fish streams would be crossed by bridges.

Sixty-one acres of wetland habitat would be lost, and 37 acres of essential fish habitat would be impacted. Construction would remove approximately 400 acres of old-growth forest.

The highway would be located within .5 miles of 136 bald eagle nests, and within 660 feet of 99 of those nests.

The road would also create potential danger to wildlife, the plan said. The road “would create a potential barrier between upland habitats and important marine fringe along the east side of Lynn Canal that would fragment the habitat of animals that tend to avoid roads. It would reduce available habitat for moose and brown bears and increase the potential for mortality from vehicle collisions. To reduce habitat fragmentation impacts, wildlife underpasses would be constructed at anadromous streams and other known high-use wildlife corridors.”

Still, DOT identifies the road as its preferred alternative because it balances “the identified needs, the economic costs and the impacts to the human environment.”

While annual operation costs are more for the east-side road ($20.4 million) than the $15.4 million cost of keeping the ferry system as-is, DOT spokesperson Jeremy Woodrow said so many more people would be using the road that the cost per traveler for DOT would be greatly reduced.

“Roads are far less expensive, and they move far more people for far less (DOT) dollars,” Woodrow said.

According to an updated traffic forecast, 730 vehicles per day would travel to and from Haines on the east-side road in the summer. Under the improved ferry system using existing assets, only 100 vehicles would travel that route per day.

The plan still doesn’t account for people who use the ferry without bringing a car on board. It is unclear how foot passengers would get from the unmanned Katzehin terminal to Auke Bay, though DOT likely won’t be providing anything.

“The Department of Transportation does not provide public transportation to any of its ferry terminals,” Woodrow said. “If the demand is there, just as you see with other alternatives, usually a private business will come in and provide alternative means if there is a demand for foot passengers.”

In 2006, DOT contacted bus operators in the region to gauge their response to this “market opportunity” of providing transportation from Katzehin to Juneau. Capital Transit, Juneau’s public bus operator, said it was unlikely to provide service.

However, the plan concluded “the potential Lynn Canal land transport market is of interest to the private sector. The operators interviewed said the market would be of interest to them if there was a demand and if it was shown to be financially lucrative... In addition, operators indicated that increased competition and lower gas prices have been driving the ground transportation business and cost to users down.”

Nancy Berland, a member of Lynn Canal Conservation who is combing through the document in preparation for sending in the group’s comments, said the hardest part of the document’s decision is its lack of regard for foot passengers.

“The most painful thing about reading any of these documents, whether it’s the Southeast Alaska Transportation Plan or the SEIS, is they blow off the walk-on passengers. They treat everyone like they are part of a vehicle. It just totally ignores what is going to happen to walk-on passengers,” Berland said.

The document is also very “Juneau-centric,” Berland said, and carries a heavy bias.

“They look for all of the positives of having a road and don’t value the positive aspects of ferry travel at all. It makes it a very hard document to read for that reason,” Berland said.

Emily Ferry, of the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, called the road project a “boondoggle” in a SEACC press release. SEACC, along with other conservation groups like Haines’ LCC, successfully challenged the original EIS in 2009.

Organizations can’t legally challenge the document until the Federal Highway Administration issues a Record of Decision, which should be out this winter.

“Even though 90 percent of the funding is from the feds on a project like this, it is entirely up to the state as to how we spend it,” said Ferry. “The FHWA can reject the EIS if the document does not meet legal standards. In that case, the solution is to go back and revise the flaws, unless the state determines it’s not worth it and decides to stop the project.”

“The evidence for cancelling the road and sticking with one of the marine action alternatives is so compelling that we are hoping the state leadership and federal agencies will make the right decision,” Ferry added.

DOT will be holding an open house and public hearing on the SEIS from 3 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 15, at the Chilkat Center. The open house is from 3 to 6 p.m., and the public hearing will be from 6 to 8 p.m.

Comments on the SEIS are due by Nov. 10. Comments will be addressed in the Final Environmental Impact Statement.

Access the SEIS online at www.juneauaccess.alaska.gov. Click on “Project Documents.”

Submit comments through the project website or email juneauaccess@alaska.gov.