Petersburg Pilot -

The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (ADOT) released a draft Southeast Alaska Transportation Plan (SATP) for public review. The plan includes the construction of a road from Kake to Petersburg and a Wrangell Narrows ferry.

According to the plan, the road is meant to be a low-volume road intended to provide local traffic between the two communities.

“A road connection to Petersburg would allow access to many of the needed goods and services and could be accomplished with a day trip at significantly reduced cost,” the plan states. “Petersburg is expected to benefit from increased business.”

The state legislature appropriated $40 million for the project in 2012 to build 22 miles of single lane unpaved roadway and improve 23 miles of existing logging roads.

The National Environmental Policy Act requires an assessment of the social, economic and environmental impacts of such a project and isn’t expected to be completed for another few years.

The public can view the ADOT plan, which also discusses changes to the ferry service at http://dot.alaska.gov/sereg/pro

jects/satp/assets/SATP_2014_Draft_Final_Web.pdf. (See the map illustrating the proposed road to Kake on page 20 of this edition.)

Feedback can be submitted to dot.satp@alaska.gov.