Talks with state include taking over DOT roads
Share
TweetA proposal to widen Lutak Road to accommodate increased tourist traffic could involve transferring three state-owned roads to the borough, according to Haines Borough manager Annette Kreitzer.
Borough staff have had preliminary discussions with state transportation officials about improving Lutak Road, a proposal that could address traffic concerns raised by the borough’s tourism advisory board in July.
In exchange for widening Lutak Road, the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (DOT) proposes transferring ownership of Piedad, Comstock and potentially Allen-Menaker roads to the borough, manager Kreitzer reported to the borough assembly Tuesday.
The project would be administered through the state’s Community Transportation Program, an initiative that every three years solicits community proposals that “make new or maintain or improve existing surface transportation facilities, enhance travel and tourism, reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions, improve air quality, and projects that connect different types of transportation such as roads and trails,” according to the program’s website.
Kreitzer said borough staff submitted a letter of intent to apply for the Lutak Road project but further steps — including submission of a full application — will require planning commission and assembly action.
Borough administrators also submitted a letter of intent to apply for improvements on FAA Road, which the state recently transferred to the borough. Project awards will be announced in May.
Over the summer the tourism advisory board voted to explore options for establishing a bike path along Lutak Road, from Picture Point to the state recreation site at Chilkoot Lake. Pointing to new e-bike and scooter rentals and commercial bike tours, board chair Barbara Nettleton said in July that she had noticed a rise in commercial use on the road that connects the Haines townsite to the Chilkoot Lake State Recreation Site, a popular destination for residents and visitors alike.
Due to the increased traffic, Lutak Road has “reached the end of its originally designed life,” DOT officials told borough staff, according to the manager’s report. Kreitzer said DOT said the road “does not safely support” the increased traffic, particularly from bicycle tours.
“Certainly there has been a lot of bicycle traffic along the road,” said Lutak resident Jim Wilson, who lives about a mile from the end of the road.
Wilson said he might be supportive of a bike path from town to Chilkoot Lake Road but he would be less keen about widening the road itself, which he said he thinks is already adequate for the amount of vehicular traffic it sees.
Wilson said he is concerned about how widening the road might impact upland and downhill property owners. He also said drivers have a tendency to speed in the residential area at the end of the road, and he suggested installing a digital sign that shows drivers how fast they are going.
Mayor Douglas Olerud said, at Tuesday’s assembly meeting, that DOT approached borough officials last April about Haines’ road needs and potential Community Transportation Program projects.
During public comment, Tom Morphet spoke in opposition to the borough taking ownership of state roads in exchange for improvements on Lutak Road.
“You’re being strong-armed here basically by bureaucrats who would love to get out of their obligations,” Morphet told the assembly. “I believe the state is involved in a type of extortion — and has been involved in this type of extortion statewide with municipalities — as crystallized with this offer: that the state will meet its obligations to the Lutak Road if the Haines Borough takes on the state’s ownership of these three other roads.”
Olerud said the three roads that the borough could acquire are neighborhood roads that the state doesn’t usually own and potentially could give to the borough without anything in exchange. He said the project, if it moves ahead, would include using FEMA and federal infrastructure funds to bring up the three roads to borough standards before the borough takes ownership.
State officials also, Olerud said, have floated the idea of transferring ownership of Mud Bay, Small Tracts and Lutak roads to the borough, “but we told them those are all not going to happen.”
