Wrangell now has enough money for Mt. Dewey trail extension

A second federal grant of $450,000 has given the borough enough money to start work and complete the long-planned extension of the popular Mt. Dewey Trail.

Construction likely will begin this year, according to Parks and Recreation Director Kate Thomas.

The project’s estimated completion date is August, according to a timeline presented to the borough assembly last month by Amber Al-Haddad, capital facilities director.

The trail extension project, which would link the existing trail to Airport Road, as well as connect the Volunteer Park Loop Trail to Ishiyama Drive, has received $450,000 from the Federal Highway Administration’s Federal Lands Access Program, Al-Haddad reported to the assembly in December.

Wrangell was granted $457,577 for the project by the same federal program in 2014, but it has not been enough to do the work.

The escalated costs of construction materials are to blame for much of the problem, Carol Rushmore, the borough’s economic development director, said in a recent email to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The project is designed and was on hold until the borough could obtain additional funding, Rushmore stated in her email.

Work will include construction of a half-mile trail extension, connecting the existing Mt. Dewey Trail to the U.S. Forest Service office on Bennett Street. The extension will take off from the existing trail down the hill and through the muskeg to a new parking area. The new route may consist of a combination of a boardwalk and gravel surfacing, to be determined during the design process. Interpretive and directional signs will be installed along the route.

The borough assembly last May unanimously approved a $69,542 contract with Juneau-based PND Engineers for scoping work to prepare the project for final design, which the firm did over the summer — planning a general route layout with a future development plan considered.

Results from that effort identified a trail route on the east slope of Mt. Dewey through forested and muskeg lands. A subsequent trail was identified to connect the existing Volunteer Loop Trail to Ishiyama Drive, also known as Spur Road.

The borough this month applied for a permit with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to construct an off-road parking lot and the Mt. Dewey Trail extension, which will require filling about half an acre of wetlands along the trail and for the parking lot.

“The plan is to get approval of the environmental permits, hopeful in a month or so, and then to begin a final design at the end of spring, and construct during summer of 2022,” said Brandon Ivanowicz, engineer at PND Engineers, who has been working on the project since last July.

Mt. Dewey is one of the most popular trails in town.