Cooper Landing Bypass Alternatives Deserve A Second Look

The 280 or so people who call Cooper Landing home are looking forward to quiet afternoons where they can watch fishermen trying their luck for the world class salmon that call the teal green river home.  Afternoons without the steady traffic of those just passing through.

Shirley Wilmoth is on the Board of Directors of the Cooper Landing Chamber of Commerce…

Shirley Wilmoth: “Everyone that lives in the town is very concerned that we cannot afford to lose our river, and because we have so much truck traffic on the Sterling Highway right next to the river on very curvy roads, that does run a risk.”

Residents of Cooper Landing have waited over 40 years to have the authorities mitigate that risk, and now it looks like they are going to have to wait just a little longer with Transportation Secretary Chao’s announcement that comments on the project were going to be re-opened now that the Interior Department is willing to make a land exchange with CIRI so that public land crossings can be avoided.

CIRI Corporate Communications Director Jason Moore: “We are certainly willing to negotiate with the Department of the Interior as far as the land exchange that will allow the Juneau Creek Alternative to go forward. We are ready and willing to participate in that.” 

With over 200 pages of public comment already on record, the feds want to give the question a fresh look now that many of the concerns voiced will be addressed by a land exchange.  The alternative favored by the DOT wasn’t a public favorite by any measure.

Jason Moore: “Some of the complaints involve – that doesn’t necessarily take the highway away from the Kenai River, so you are potentially looking at more impacts to the river.  There are also many more cultural assets that are likely to be impacted with that alternative, that upset many of the Kenaitze tribal members. We think taking the route further away from the Kenai River makes a lot more sense.”

In their written comments, the Russian River Land Group which is composed of CIRI, along with  Kenaitze Indian Tribe, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and the US Forest Service to cooperate on efforts to “protect and preserve the outstanding historic, cultural, and natural resources” in the vicinity of the confluence of the Russian and Kenai Rivers noted that at least one of the alternatives would have irreversible impacts as well as unanticipated effects to sites defined by the Kenaitze Indian Tribe as sacred and spiritual, including traditional burial sites.

The fall 2017 Final Determination originally offered by the State DOT seems to be a push. In an interview with KSRM News, Federal DOT spokesman Doug Hecox said the federal government is not doing anything this fall.

Doug Hecox: “We aren’t committed to any specific timetable.  It is hard to know exactly what is going to happen until after this timetable is over.”

Find out more information including videos that explain the details of each of the four alternatives at this link. Submit your comment by sending an email to the Sterling Highway team leaders at  sterlinghwy@hdrinc.com.

Story as aired on KSRM News:

http://www.radiokenai.us/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Dorene-on-cooper-landing-bypass-alternatives-deserve-a-second-look.mp3

Cooper Landing Bypass Project Re-Opens Consideration Of All Four Routes

fter over four decades, the dream of the Cooper Landing Bypass took a big step forward Friday, even as the project took two steps back with the announcement that the Federal Highway Administration is re-opening the Least Environmental Harm Analysis on the four lead alternatives that they are investigating.  The reconsideration to attributed to a new ability to execute a land exchange for controversial properties that made some of the alternatives less attractive.

The Sterling Highway is one of state’s busiest roads, and DOT has worked at re-routing the thin 15-mile ribbon of twisting, turning pavement between Mileposts 45-60 since 1975.

Commissioner for Transportation Marc Luiken:”The Department of Interior has sent a letter to the Secretary of Transportation that said, ‘we would consider a land exchange with the native corporation CIRI if one of these other alternatives …were selected.”  

Marc Luiken

Two years ago, DOT announced department preference for the G South Alternative, but Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao announced that route is no longer the heir apparent.

Commissioner for Transportation Marc Luiken:”Several groups on the Kenai Peninsula, including the Borough itself and certainly the tribes and the native corporation down there, were concerned about that particular alternative.”

G South Alternative would reconstruct eight miles of the existing highway, construct 5.5 miles of new alignment skirting north of Cooper Landing, before reconnecting with the existing alignment near milepost 52.. This alternative would construct a new bridge over lower Juneau Creek and another over the Kenai River, and replace an existing bridge over the Kenai River.

Proponents found the routing avoids impacts to the Resurrection Pass Trail, the Juneau Falls Recreation Area and important cultural properties, and also avoids using designated wilderness land within the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge.  The G South Alternative also skirts Cooper Landing in an effort to reduce traffic, noise ,and property acquisition that would potentially impact that community.

According to the project’s website, later this year DOT&PF and FHWA will publish a Final EIS which provide additional details on the identification of the preferred alternative, along with responses to all the public comments received on the project.  The final decision on which alternative will be selected is expected to be announced this fall with the publication of the Record of Decision.

Chao says the Sterling Highway project has “currently the longest running federally led Environmental Impact Statement in the country.”  The Sterling highway was opened in 1950, with Seward’s Chris Sorenson driving the first vehicle across, running supplies to Per Osmar in Clam Gulch.

Story as aired on KSRM News:

http://www.radiokenai.us/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Dorene-on-Copper-River-Bypass.mp3