Final PEL study for second Douglas crossing scores Salmon Creek as top option, but all routes remain viable
- Mark Sabbatini
- Jul 30
- 2 min read
Study recommends all five proposed crossings advance to next step for in-depth environmental review
This is a developing story
A final report released Wednesday for a lengthy review of a second Juneau-Douglas crossing declares all five proposed routes should proceed to the next step for an in-depth review of their environmental impacts.
The Planning and Environmental Linkages (PEL) study gives the highest score to the so-called Salmon Creek option — the one closest to the existing Douglas Bridge — due in part to public concerns expressed about alternatives that cross the Mendenhall Wetlands. However, there are unanswered questions about the risk a breach of the Salmon Creek Dam would pose to that crossing
People shouldn’t read too much into the scores in the PEL report since there isn’t a huge difference between them and the alternatives are evaluated on a "pass-fail" basis, said Greg Lockwood, the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities’ project manager for the Juneau-Douglas Second Crossing, in an interview Wednesday.
"They’re not going to mean anything when they get into the next round," he said, referring to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review process.
Scores of the five alternatives, in descending order, were Salmon Creek (3), Twin Lakes (-10), Vanderbilt (-18), Sunny Point East (-20), Sunny Point West (-23). The no-build alternative scored -16, with the study noting it "does not meet purpose and need but will be carried forward into the future NEPA process to provide a baseline against which to evaluate other alternatives."
The report also notes the Salmon Creek crossing would be located in the failure zone of the concrete Salmon Creek Dam built in 1914, according to Alaska Electric Light and Power. Annual inspections are required by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), but recent results from those are not known.
"A Freedom of Information Act request was made in August 2024 seeking the most recent evaluation of the Salmon Creek Dam to assess the risk of a dam breach event," the PEL report notes. "To date, this information has not been provided and would be reviewed in a future NEPA analysis."
The Sunny Point East option just south of Juneau International Airport scored highest in a study presented to city leaders in March of 2024, but Lockwood said that option and Sunny Point West (which finished third then) dropped in the ranking due to the volume of public input.
"Basically, everything we weighted to the Mendenhall wetlands affected the scores," he said.
A second crossing has been discussed since the 1980s, but is not included in the Alaska Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) with a hoped-for completion date of 2030.
The projected cost of the project has increased significantly from the $90 million estimate in a City and Borough of Juneau capital improvement projects study published in 2020. Recent estimates place the cost of the alternatives between $340 million (Vanderbilt) and $530 million (Sunny Point East).
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.
