User:JKBrooks85/Lynn Canal Highway

Lynn Canal, showing a few of the numerous avalanche chutes along the proposed route

The Lynn Canal Highway is a proposed road link between City and Borough of Juneau, Alaska and the communities at the north end of Lynn Canal: Skagway and Haines. The Lynn Canal Highway, commonly called the Juneau Road or simply "The Road," is one of several construction options under consideration as part of the Juneau Access Project, an effort by the Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities to improve transportation to Juneau, Alaska's state capital and the largest mainland city in North America not connected to the continental road network.

Transportation access to Juneau has been a contentious topic almost since the city's founding in 1880. As early as 1888, regional newspapers called for construction of roads at the north end of Lynn Canal in order to ease travel between Juneau and newly discovered gold deposits in the Fortymile River area of the Yukon Territory and Alaska. The first proposal for a road out of Juneau came in 1905 when the Atlin, British Columbia Chamber of Commerce suggested the widening of a prospecting trail along the Taku River. The route was surveyed, but the road was never constructed.

In the later years of the 20th century, the Territory of Alaska and (after 1959 and Alaska Statehood Act) considered roads to Juneau along several routes following the western and eastern shores of Lynn Canal. Each failed to start construction, and access to Juneau remained limited to air travel and the Alaska Marine Highway System. This caused repeated complaints from Alaska residents who sought access to their capital city. The lack of road access also became an issue as Alaskans repeatedly debated moving their state capital to a centrally located city. In the late 1980s, DOT&PF began the Juneau Access Improvements Project, an effort to connect Juneau to the outside world with a hard-surface highway or improved ferry service.

In January 2006, the DOT&PF announced its preferred option for the Juneau Access Project: the Lynn Canal Highway. As currently envisioned, it consists of a 50.8 miles (81.8 km) two-lane highway extending north along the east side of Lynn Canal from Echo Cove in Berners Bay (the end of the existing Juneau-area road network) to a point north of the mouth of the Katzehin River. At that point, a ferry terminal would be built, and two new Alaska-class ferries would offer shuttle service to Haines and Skagway. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) confirmed the DOT&PF choice, but in August 2006, a lawsuit filed in United States District Court for the District of Alaska alleged that DOT&PF violated the National Environmental Policy Act by failing to consider ways to improve transportation in Lynn Canal with existing infrastructure without new construction.

The lawsuit was backed primarily by environmental organizations including the SouthEast Alaska Conservation Commission (SEACC), which believe construction of the Lynn Canal Highway would damage the ecosystems of Lynn Canal, which is largely located within the Tongass National Forest. Environmentalists' opposition is supported by that of fiscal conservatives who believe the proposed cost of the highway is too great. The lawsuit was upheld by the district court, which ordered work on the highway stopped. An appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the district court's ruling. In late 2014, DOT&PF released new studies that analyzed the court-ordered alternative but found it inferior to construction of the Lynn Canal Highway. As of December 2014, DOT&PF is analyzing public comment on its revised plan ahead of a final approval from the FHWA.

Location

Lynn Canal is a roughly 90 miles (140 km) channel located in southeastern Alaska that stretches north-northwest from Chatham Strait to the Chilkat Peninsula, which divides Lynn Canal into two child channels, Chilkat Inlet to the northwest, and Chilkoot Inlet to the north. Lynn Canal has been used as a transportation corridor and fishing area by Tlingit Alaska Natives for several thousand years. Its recorded history begins in July 1794 when it was visited by the Vancouver Expedition of 1791–95. Captain George Vancouver named Lynn Canal in honor of his birthplace, King's Lynn, in Norfolk, England.

Within Lynn Canal are several islands and chains of islands, most notably the Chilkat Islands and Eldred Rock, home to a U.S. Coast Guard lighthouse. Farther south are Sullivan, Shelter and Lincoln islands, all of which are larger than the Chilkats and Eldred Rock.

Lynn Canal is bordered on both the east and west sides by significant mountains that slope steeply to the shoreline. Just beyond the northern end of Lynn Canal's east side is the mouth of the Katzehin River. South of the river, the land rises into the peaks of the Kakuhan Range, a subsidiary of the Boundary Ranges, which in turn are a subsidiary of the Coast Mountains. The highest peak of the Kakuhans is Mount Selby, measured by the U.S. Geological Survey to be 6,330 feet (1,930 m) tall. South of the Kakuhan Range is Berners Bay, which holds the mouths of the Lace River and Antler River. South of Berners Bay, the land becomes hilly instead of mountainous and Lynn Canal is split by Lincoln and Shelter islands into Favorite Channel and Saginaw Channel just northwest of Auke Bay, a suburb of the city of Juneau.

The mountains of the Chilkat Range define Lynn Canal's western shore. As on the eastern side, the land slopes steeply toward the water. At the northern end of Lynn Canal's west side is Chilkat Inlet and the foot of Davidson Glacier, which ends just short of the ocean. Several other ice tongues and glacier-fed streams, creeks and rivers enter Lynn Canal on the western shore, the largest being the Endicott River. William Henry Bay is a small protected indent on the west side of Lynn Canal directly across from Berners Bay. Farther south is the larger Saint James Bay, home to a state marine park. Where Lincoln Island and Shelter Island divide the eastern half of Lynn Canal into two channels, the western half consists of a single channel that continues west of Admiralty Island until it reaches Chatham Strait, a major east-west waterway that separates the Alaska mainland from Chichagof Island.

Proposed route

As currently proposed by the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, the Lynn Canal Highway would be a 50.8 miles (81.8 km) two-lane asphalt roadway. It would include 47.9 miles (77.1 km) of new highway and the widening of 2.9 miles (4.7 km) of the existing Glacier Highway, the sole road leading out of Juneau to the north. The Glacier Highway currently ends at Echo Cove, a small body of water on the south side of Berners Bay.

From Echo Cove, the highway would move northeast, skirting the eastern shore of Berners Bay. To avoid disturbing protected bald eagle nests, it would generally track inland of the shoreline. On the northeast side of Berners Bay, bridges would carry the highway over the Antler, Gilkey, Lace and Berners rivers. The bridge over the Antler River would be 2,800 feet (850 m) long, and the bridge over the Lace River would be 2,900 feet (880 m) long. This would make these two bridges the third-longest and second-longest in Alaska, respectively.

Past the rivers, the highway would turn west, skirting the northern shore of Berners Bay. It would intersect an existing unpaved road that connects Kensington Gold Mine with a cargo dock at Slate Cove in Berners Bay. A combination maintenance station and rest stop would be built in this area, named Comet. Turning north, the road would be located close to the shoreline to avoid trees with eagle nests, avoid avalanche chutes, and pass below steep cliffs. Despite this path, the highway would still be crossed by 43 known avalanche paths. To mitigate the danger these paths pose to the highway and traffic traveling on it, ADOT&PF has proposed building bridges over some avalanche paths, filling terrain to raise the level of the highway, constructing three snow sheds to allow avalanches to travel over the highway, and using avalanche-triggering devices including automatic avalanche horns, helicopter-dropped explosives, and blaster boxes.

The highway would be routed uphill of the shoreline in two locations to avoid sea lion haulouts. In these places, the highway would be notched into cliffs to maintain a natural screen between the haulouts and the highway. Where necessary, screens would be constructed to separate the haulouts from the highway. At two places near the haulout at Gran Point, two tunnels would be drilled to avoid cliffs.

Approaching the Katzehin River, the highway would descend to the shoreline level to avoid steep cliffs above the high-tide line. The highway would cross the river on a 2,600 feet (790 m) bridge that would be the fourth-longest in Alaska. North of the river, the highway would end at a ferry terminal, which would offer service across Chilkoot Inlet to Haines and north up the inlet to Skagway.

Other proposals, no longer being actively considered by ADOT&PF, include extending the highway north to provide an overland connection to Skagway, bridging Chilkoot Inlet to connect to Haines, and constructing a ferry terminal in Echo Cove, which would eliminate the requirement to extend the highway to the Katzehin River.

Supporters

Capital move argument

In addition, a road would secure Juneau as the capital city (since the capital has twice been voted to be moved nearer Anchorage, this is an ever-present fear in the minds of many Juneauites that live in a city they feel would hardly exist without state bureaucratic presence), that the increased tourism via buses and RV'ers will boost Juneau's economy, that a road would make Juneau the top sea port in Southeast Alaska, that it would provide more readily available healthcare to residents of Skagway and Haines, and allow Juneauites to drive north instead of catching a ferry or plane.

Economic argument

Proponents of the Juneau Access Road concept state that the road would bring 80,000 drive-in visitors in addition to the 895,000 (2005) visitors arriving each summer by cruise ship to Juneau. A state study says that Juneau should expect 900 to 3,400 additional recreational vehicles in a road's first year. A cursory search of Frommer's and the Tongass National Forest website suggests approximately 169 camping sites in and around Juneau as of July, 2008. (Spruce Meadows RV Park, Auke Village Campground, Mendenhall Lake Campground, Savikko RV Park and Eagle Beach State Park.) A 150 day tourist season and an average three day stay would suggest a potential overcrowding and capacity issue on some high traffic occasions presenting an added opportunity for economic development in the area.

See also

• Juneau, Alaska#Juneau Access Project

References

Sources

• The Juneau Empire - The Divided Line
• Tongass National Forest Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement

External links

• 2014 SEIS Figures
• Juneau Road