Improve current ferries and roads, forget about Cascade Point, Juneau residents tell state transportation officials
- Mark Sabbatini
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
DOT seeks comments at open house as starting point for revision of Southeast Alaska Transportation Plan
By Mark Sabbatini
Juneau Independent
Provide bus service to the existing Auke Bay Ferry Terminal, and improve the frequency and reliability of ferry service to all communities. Don’t build the Cascade Point Ferry Terminal far out the road — let alone consider a "Chilkat corridor" that would also extend the road system south from Haines toward Juneau.
Those were the dominant comments, along with scattered other suggestions, from dozens of people attending an open house Thursday at the Mendenhall Valley Public Library hosted by state officials seeking feedback on proposed updates to the Southeast Alaska Transportation Plan. The plan is essentially a 20-year lookahead blueprint that’s been updated occasionally since it was originally published in 1980.
The public input process for the current revision is in the initial stages, according to the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities. The Juneau open house followed a similar event in Ketchikan on Wednesday, and two virtual open houses are scheduled at Tuesday, Dec. 16, from 10-11:30 a.m. and 5-6:30 p.m.
The transportation needs and wishes expressed by Juneau residents at Thursday’s open house were largely predictable since ferries are the literal "marine highway" between Southeast communities — and ridership is down more than half from the 1990s as the aging fleet is increasingly out of service and route schedules have been slashed.
The Duneavy administration earlier this year said it is reviving the Juneau Access Project — declared dead by former Gov. Bill Walker in 2017 — with an eye on extending roads linked by shorter ferry routes. A centerpiece of that vision is the Cascade Point terminal 30 miles north of Juneau, which a state economic study says has mixed transportation impacts, but would be a boon to a proposed gold mine and other possible development north of town.
None of the people interviewed by the Juneau Independent or who posted written comments on display sheets during the first hour of the two-hour open house supported the project.
Kathy Miller, a Juneau resident for more than 50 years who lives at about 20-mile Glacier Highway — about halfway to the proposed Cascade terminal — said she wants to see improvements in the existing road and ferry networks that improve living and working conditions for the community at-large.
"Instead of pushing something out there, because maybe it'll create some jobs for a period of time and make money for that industry — are those all local people that are going to be hired to work in that area?" she said. "I don't see that. So that’s obviously prejudice in that way. But I don't see that it's a fair return. I would rather see the money going into being able to attract people in here to work."
Another longtime resident who lives far out the road, Jo Boehme, said that as a retired Bartlett Regional Hospital employee she has other practical worries about the Cascade terminal.
"Part of my personal concern, being a retired Bartlett employee, is what agency is it going to fall on to be first responders when there's inevitable accidents out the road," she said. "Does that fall on state Troopers? I think it’s out of Juneau JPD and Capital City Fire/Rescue’s area, and that needs to be clarified."
Improvements within Juneau such as upgrading the road to Eaglecrest Ski Area, extending city bus service to the Auke Bay ferry terminal and more support for bicyclers were suggested by Dan Cannon, a Juneau resident for the past seven years. He also said he’d like to see state transportation officials interact better with residents during public events so people have a better understanding of projects and the process.
"This is obviously a pretty technical issue," he said, "For example, I had to better understand the state’s and the city's relationship on the Eaglecrest road, and how they share maintenance responsibilities, etc., and I don't even think I fully understand it. So it's a pretty complex project and I think if you don't know the right questions to ask, or if you don't have that technical mindset, which I don't, it can be pretty hard to engage with."
Cannon said something like a 20-minute presentation at the start of events like the open house and a stenographer who’s recording comments by people during conversations with officials are among the improvements he’d suggest.
DOT, at its website for the transportation plan update, states the current town halls are the beginning of a three-step process expected to continue through next November. Additional public input through online sessions, in-person community meetings and participation with group stakeholders such as Southeast Conference are planned during that time.
About 35 people showed up during the first hour at the Juneau event and about 20 during the open house in Ketchikan, according to DOT signup sheets. There were mixed opinions among attendees in Juneau about how effective participation in such events is at influencing decisions made, based on past experience, but even skeptics said making the effort is worthwhile.
"You never know unless you try," Boehme said. "You’ve got to let the public speak their voice. It's like voting, although it's not a democratic process here. But if we don't tell them what the public wants and doesn't want, they're just going to rubber-stamp it."
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.
