![]() The Juneau Road and many other Alaskan projects received smaller amounts. The bridges garnered national attention in 2005 when a federal transportation bill ushered through congress by Transportation Committee Chair Don Young, granted huge earmarks for the Knik Arm Bridge in Anchorage, and the Gravina Island Bridge in Ketchikan. Emily also highlighted the connection between the road and the now infamous ‘bridges to nowhere’. Once again SEACC’s staff attorney Buck Lindekugel lead the charge by coordinating a cutting analysis of the draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), while Emily Ferry organized robust opposition to the project in Skagway, Haines, and Juneau. When Governor Frank Murkowski took office in 2003, he announced his plan to restart the road planning process. Shortly afterward, then Governor Knowles announced he was tabling the road project and would instead construct two new fast vehicle ferries to connect Juneau with Skagway and Haines. In 2000 Marc Wheeler and SEACC’s allies rallied to win a local advisory vote: Juneauites chose an improved ferry system over the dangerous and environmentally damaging road. SEACC organized the grassroots opposition to the first draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) issued for public comment in 1997, citing the environmental impacts the road would have on the land and wildlife and the dangers it would pose to travelers. The stunning geology that makes it such a unique and wonderful place would also have made it one of the most dangerous roads in the world. Further up the Lynn Canal mountain goats cling to the steep faces of 6,000 foot peaks that plunge vertically into a fjord that is 2,000 feet deep. Along the river delta it is easy to find bear, moose, and wolves. With four rivers converging at the head of the Bay, the area explodes with wildlife each spring as the nutritious schools of eulachon (often called “hooligan”) offer themselves to hundreds of seals, sea lions, and whales. ![]() It would slice through Berners Bay, the heart of the largest roadless area in the Tongass National Forest an area critical for wildlife and a geologic mine field. The road was proposed as a way to reduce costs to the state by replacing the state-run Alaska Marine Highway System with a “hard link” between Juneau and Skagway. It was in the early 1990s that the Alaska Department of Transportation took the first steps towards the road by kicking-off a public environmental review process for a road along the east side of Lynn Canal, North America’s steepest, deepest fjord. That left a road north along the Lynn Canal as one of the few potential options. Similarly, the route up the Taku River is blocked by ever-shifting glaciers. So why is there no road to Juneau? A road going due east wouldn’t work out so well with an icefield the size of Rhode Island separating Juneau from Atlin, British Columbia. While Juneau is not the only capitol city not connected by road, sharing that designation with Honolulu and Victoria, BC, it is the only one located on the mainland. The idea was to create easier access to Juneau, Alaska’s capitol, which remains accessible only by air or sea. ![]() It was in the early 1990s that the latest incarnation of “The Road” took shape.
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