Southeast's new transportation plan.

• Author: Bonham, Nicole A.
• Position: Alaska Marine Highway System ferry

It's dark still-just after 2 a.m.-and a line of wet and weary travelers, blurry-eyed from the early morning hour and fitful sleep on hard terminal seats, readies to board an Alaska Marine Highway System ferry in Ketchikan.

Cranky kids. Confusion. What could have been a much-anticipated ride home for some, or scenic sightseeing trip for others, is instead a veritable travel ordeal. It's exactly that form of inconvenience and limited options that state transportation strategists hope to combat with a new plan that hit the streets this year.

Culminating a two-year effort to design a blueprint for transportation in Alaska's Panhandle, state planners have turned out a finely tuned engine for carrying locals, visitors and freight efficiently and speedily across the island region, known for its very isolation.

The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities released its new Southeast Alaska Transportation Plan this summer, with Commissioner Joe Perkins calling the report "a road map" for the future. In fact, the report does use existing road and some new roadway to create a series of ferry and driving options that will allow the traveler to move with relative ease and speed through the dozen or so water-bound communities that make up Southeast.

Critics of the plan have mourned the changes for various reasons: potential environmental impact, alleged favoritism toward the summertime tourist, a possible loss of freight capacity, even changes in traffic patterns. But, overall, response has been cautiously favorable, with some 65 percent of comments logged in support of the plan and 28 percent opposing it, says project director Jeff Ottesen, also the department's statewide planning chief.

"It keeps some of the long-line ferry service, as we know it today-but not as much as we know today," Ottesen said. "It replaces (portions) with a fleet of what are essentially day-boats" and also uses road links.

"I think we have a good balance," he said, noting that obvious changes will occur by 2003, with limited local projects online as early as 2001.

ZONES AND CORRIDORS

The final plan divides the region into four zones, or primary travel corridors:

Zone 1: Juneau-Haines-Skagway Zone 2: Juneau-Sitka-Petersburg Zone 3: Petersburg-Ketchikan Zone 4: Ketchikan-Prince Rupert, B.C.

The traditional system of mainline ferry service has tied the region together from Prince Rupert to Skagway, with limited local ferry offshoots to those communities off the main...