Public Comments Needed: Don’t fund the West Su Access Road
— Satchel Pondolfino
The 100+ mile West Su Access Road – an industrial corridor proposed to service a myriad of foreign mining lease holders, primarily gold leases, would kick off a tidal wave of industrialization in the West Susitna watershed. Characterized by healthy intact habitat, the West Su region is currently only accessed by small planes, dog teams, and off-road vehicles, motorized and non-motorized, for sport and subsistence, and cabin refuges away from it all. The road would be 100% publicly funded.
At this moment, school districts across Alaska are facing school closures, existing roads are deteriorating, culverts and fish passages sit damaged and blocked, and public road projects -like the Cooper Landing bypass- half completed and idle, are in limbo due to lack of funding. It is undeniably wasteful to give away millions of public dollars for a road that benefits foreign mining companies rather than Alaskan communities.
Yet, for the third time, the State of Alaska’s Department of Transportation is applying for $87 million of federal taxpayer dollars from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to finance the first 22 miles of the road. The project has already been rejected by the FHWA twice in part because it was deemed that DOT failed to adequately address public concerns and misused funding codes.
Your public comments helped stop this first portion of the West Su Access road from getting funded before, and we can stop it again. Federal funding for the first 22 miles of road will not only pave the way for significant state investment to complete the project at the expense of everyday Alaskans in the future, the State will also be on the hook for a minimum of $14,356,167 in match funding for this first section if the proposal is awarded. Prioritizing this expense over critical public service funding we so desperately need is a kick in the pants to all Alaskans and something we simply cannot afford.
Comments are due March 20th. Speak out about this misuse of public funds today. Tell the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) not to fund the controversial West Su Access Road (STIP Projects 34206 & 34461) in their Amendment #2 to the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program proposal!
Send comments to: dot.stip@alaska.gov