![]() ![]() A few rules would probably need to change, but I'm confident Alaska's politicians have enough clout when it comes to dealing with federal transportation money to bring this about. The interest alone could go toward operating and maintaining the current Lynn Canal ferry system. Instead, Alaska's politicians should do something they don't do very often: they should put the money for the road in the bank. With the new plan, Haines and Skagway residents (or my son's high-school basketball team) will take the ferry across Lynn Canal for about an hour, get off, and then have to drive about 75 miles to Juneau, which has no roads out of it. I can also stay on and go to Sitka, Petersburg, Wrangell, Ketchikan, Prince Rupert, British Columbia or even Bellingham, Wash. Right now, I can get on a ferry in Haines and take it all the way to Juneau. The highway's designers promise to fix the problem by building a new ferry terminal at the end of the proposed road and purchasing new boats to haul people and cars from there to the ferry docks in Haines and Skagway, frequently in the summer, less so in the winter.īut this will make regional travel even harder. The result? We're on course to get a $300 million road to nowhere. Earlier this month, the Federal Highway Administration announced it would not finance a road that went through Skagway's Gold Rush-era park, a national landmark. But now the road is going to stop in the middle of the wilderness, 18 miles south of Skagway. Oh, and did I mention that the road won't fulfill its ostensible mission? The whole purpose of the new road was to connect Juneau to the Klondike Highway at Skagway, so that Alaskans who live in the interior would be able to drive to the state capital rather than rely on planes and ferries. The communities directly affected - Haines (population 2,400), Skagway (population 870) and Juneau (population 31,000) - have voiced opposition to the road for a host of good reasons: it is a waste of money with at least two dozen avalanche chutes, it will be too dangerous to drive in winter, which is most of the year we already have a fine ferry system that gets us just about everywhere we need to go in all kinds of weather some places are too nice to be paved over. Frank Murkowski assures Alaskans that he'll get whatever he needs from the federal government. Actually, the project will cost about $300 million to complete, but Gov. The transportation money will go toward the first road ever to be built along the canal. ![]() Haines, the small town I live in, is close to Skagway - separated from it only by the waters of the upper Lynn Canal, which is not a canal at all, but the longest fjord in North America. ![]() Then there's $230 million or so for "Don Young's Way," a bridge between Anchorage and a swampy, undeveloped port, which is named for the man who got us the money, Alaska's lone congressman.īut it's the $15 million designated for a road between Juneau and Skagway that is dearest to me. The bridge will rival the Golden Gate and Brooklyn Bridges in length and height. There's about a quarter of a billion dollars for a bridge to connect the airport on Gravina Island to Ketchikan (population 14,000). HAINES, Alaska - YOU have probably already heard about the pile of cash going to Alaska from the federal transportation bill. ![]()
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