Walker weighs whether to extend Juneau Access Road

A sign at the end of Glacier Highway, near where the Juneau Access Road extension would be built. Gov. Walker is weighing whether to back the project.Oct. 4, 2016. (Photo by Andrew Kitchenman/KTOO)
A sign stands at the end of Glacier Highway, near where the Juneau Access Road extension would be built. Gov. Walker is weighing whether to back the project. (Photo by Andrew Kitchenman/KTOO)

Forty miles north of downtown Juneau, the Glacier Highway reaches a point that’s like nowhere else in any similar-sized city in the mainland of North America: the end of a road system.

This "End" sign is worse for the wear after being shot by numerous visitors to the end of Glacier Highway. Oct. 4, 2016. (Photo by Andrew Kitchenman/KTOO)
This “End” sign is worse for the wear after being shot by numerous visitors to the end of Glacier Highway. (Photo by Andrew Kitchenman/KTOO)

Nearby, a yellow, bullet-pocked sign that once read “End” is no longer legible.

For Gov. Bill Walker, the question is whether this spot should continue to be the road’s end.

Walker is facing a major decision on one of Alaska’s oldest and controversial megaproject ideas: whether to extend Juneau’s main road 48 miles closer to Haines and Skagway.

Walker shut down two megaprojects this year: the Knik Arm bridge and the Susitna-Watana dam.

He said on Sept. 30 he weighed his options on the Juneau Access Road during a recent flight from South Korea.

“I am not leaning in any particular direction at this point,” Walker said.

The steep mountains that border Lynn Canal have prevented Juneau from being connected to other roads.

In 2006, state and federal officials announced plans to design and build the road extension, which would take it to the Katzehin River.

The Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, or SEACC, successfully sued to block the decision.

A federal judge found that the state hadn’t considered reasonable alternatives.

The route the state previously supported is estimated to cost $574 million, of which the state would pay roughly 9 percent.

Walker’s currents options were laid out in a 2014 state-funded analysis put together by the Juneau-based consultants Milton Barker and the McDowell Group.

They range from doing nothing to building the road to Katzehin, to building a separate road extension on the Haines side of the Lynn Canal.

Barker said the analysis isn’t the final word.

“I can explain how the benefit-cost ratios were derived and what they mean,” Barker said. “But how to weigh those in selecting projects for funding is a decision that rests with the state and federal government.”

This is a stretch of Glacier Highway. Gov. Walker is facing a decision on whether to extend the road. Oct. 4, 2016. (Photo by Andrew Kitchenman/KTOO)
This is a stretch of Glacier Highway. Gov. Walker is facing a decision on whether to extend the road. (Photo by Andrew Kitchenman/KTOO)

Listing the pros and cons of the project is a well-rehearsed activity for those who’ve been engaged in the battle over it through the decades.

On the pro-side: The federal government is bearing the vast majority of the capital costs. And extending the road would cut hours in travel time to Haines and Skagway compared with current ferry travel.

But the anti-road side notes the road would cross a long series of avalanche chutes, which would block traffic in the winter and add high maintenance costs.

The 2014 analysis found that none of the options would bring the state more in user benefits than they would cost.

It found the extension to Katzehin would only bring in 28 cents of user benefits for every dollar of combined federal and state spending.

If only the state spending is considered, then it would bring 85 cents of user benefits for every dollar.

Economic consultant Gregg Erickson recalled telling Walker’s transition team in 2014 that the state could save money by killing megaprojects like the road.

“The one I focused on was to end those megaprojects that really don’t pencil out under any calculus in terms of the benefits they would provide to Alaska,” he said.

Erickson remembered being asked at the transition team conference whether it would be politically difficult.

“My answer was, ‘Well, that’s what political courage is all about.’ And I recall Gov.-Elect Walker nodding knowingly,” Erickson said.

Former state Transportation Commissioner Dick Knapp said the road extension will be worth it.

“There are a lot of socioeconomic benefits,” Knapp said. “And they include basically binding together the Southeast, by tying at least three communities together.”

Barker noted that the analysis he did with the McDowell Group didn’t consider other factors, such as the effects on economic development and the environment.

SEACC Deputy Director Emily Ferry said she’s concerned the road extension will crowd out funding for the Alaska Marine Highway System.

“Pretty much that will be the one and only project we will get in the region. And there are a lot other needs,” she said.

Ferry also questioned whether the road extension would truly improve access.

“Driving through 36 avalanche chutes, five tunnels and an incredibly dangerous road, doesn’t necessarily increase our access and it certainly does not make travel safer,” Ferry said.

The state-funded analysis found one alternative to doing nothing that would provide more user benefits than it would cost the state: extending the road a much shorter distance along Berners Bay. If federal money is included, then the costs exceed the benefits.

Transportation Commissioner Marc Luiken said early last year the state risked reimbursing the federal government as much as $27 million, according to the Alaska Dispatch News.

It’s not clear if Walker will announce a decision this year, but he’s actively considering it.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated that one road option would extend it to Berners Bay. The road already reaches Echo Cove, which is part of Berners Bay. Additionally, the story had understated the length of the proposed extension. It would be about 48 miles closer to Haines and Skagway, not 28 miles. 

Andrew Kitchenman

State Government Reporter, Alaska Public Media & KTOO

State government plays an outsized role in the life of Alaskans. As the state continues to go through the painful process of deciding what its priorities are, I bring Alaskans to the scene of a government in transition.

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