Wrangling Roads: The labyrinth of Alaska road construction.

AuthorStrieker, Julie
PositionBuilding Alaska

Every summer, scores of tourists and fishermen flock to the Kenai Peninsula, home to world-class salmon fisheries, spectacular scenery, and abundant wildlife. For most of the year, it's about a two-hour leisurely drive south from Anchorage, but during the height of the summer tourist season, caravans of motorhomes and SUVs run into a fifteen-mile bottleneck on the Sterling Highway. At Milepost 45, the road narrows to two lanes with sharp corners, no shoulders, and limited visibility. It runs through the community of Cooper Landing, crossing hidden -driveways and side roads-with speed limits of 45 miles-per-hour or less. This stretch of Sterling Highway was built in the 1940s and '50s to serve the level of traffic being seen at that time. Originally gravel, it is the only road that links the western Kenai Peninsula communities of Homer, Kenai, and Soldotna to the rest of the state. Today, it's clearly overburdened:

For those fifteen miles, Sterling Highway is a slow-moving parking lot until the road widens once more to four lanes at Mile 60. Along with being incredibly congested, it also has a high rate of accidents.

As far back as 1978, the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (DOT&PF) noted the need for improved safety and traffic flow and started environmental impact studies (EIS) to determine the best way to improve that stretch of road. Forty years later it remains unchanged. It is the longest EIS on the federal books. What has taken so long?

In short, it's a case of too many cooks in the kitchen. Because the Sterling Highway corridor is bounded by federal land, it falls under an EIS process that typically can take anywhere from eight to ten years, according to Marc I.uiken, commissioner for DOT&PF. And every agency involved has its own National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

"You have to follow that process," Luiken says. "It's not just the Federal Highway Administration. Every federal agency gets involved and has input."

In the case of Sterling Highway, the US Forest Service, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, an Alaska Native corporation, and the community of Cooper Landing would be affected by a potential realignment.

"Everybody gets input," Luiken says. "Not that that's a bad thing, necessarily--it just takes time."

The land adjacent to the highway is largely developed. Steep mountains rise on both sides and most of the land is managed by the Chugach National Forest and the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. Several state recreation sites line the Kenai River.

"Any change to the highway likely would impact wildlife corridors and habitat, recreation areas, and cultural sites," according to the DOT&PF website on the Sterling Highway.

In the early 1980s, DOT8iPF facilities identified several possible...

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