The state capital budget approved by the Alaska Senate last week includes $200,000 for the borough to start planning an emergency access route for when Zimovia Highway is blocked by landslides or other disasters.
The route would connect the old logging road at Pats Creek on the west side of Wrangell Island to the Spur Road on the island’s east side.
The borough estimates the total cost of design and construction at roughly $5 million, and requested $500,000 in state funding to start planning and design work.
The Senate approved the capital projects budget on April 12, sending it to the House for consideration. The Legislature faces a May 15 adjournment deadline. The governor would have the final say on spending items in the budget.
The East Channel Emergency Access Route, as the borough calls it, would use the existing Forest Service road that starts at Zimovia Highway near Pats Creek, crossing through the middle of the island and adding maybe half a mile of new road to link up with the Spur Road for access to the airport and town.
In its request for state funding, the borough referred to the new route as “a critical need” to provide access for emergency personnel and an escape route for residents in the event of another landslide like the one at 11.2-Mile on Nov. 20 that blocked Zimovia Highway.
Without a secondary route to the south end of Zimovia Highway, the only access for residents and emergency crews is by boat, which is how first responders and others managed until the highway reopened a week after the landslide.
The proposed escape route of about 12 miles would cross federal and state lands. The borough already is working with the state for an easement to allow use of an existing state forest road.
The project would require improving portions of the roadways along the route to make them accessible to most vehicles, in addition to building the short stretch of new connector road on the east side of the island.
“A portion of the state forest road on the south side of the unconnected area is decommissioned and water-barred,” the borough said in its request for state money. “The existing road to the north has drainage issues, alder growth and two bridges requiring condition assessments but are currently drivable by all-terrain vehicles.”
The estimated $500,000 for planning and design would help determine the route alignment, conduct environmental permitting and prepare a better estimate of the construction cost, the borough said.
That work also would include fish stream surveys and reviews of culvert and drainage issues.
In addition to providing a secondary access route to the southern end of Zimovia Highway, the new road connection would “create a loop for expanded tourism opportunities and recreation,” the borough said in its funding request.
Borough officials discussed the proposed escape route with federal officials in December, during a trip to Washington, D.C. Borough Manager Mason Villarma suggested the U.S. Forest Service should consider abandoning the Middle Ridge Road that was heavily damaged in last November’s landslide and spend money instead to help fund the escape route.
“It doesn’t make sense to spend millions and millions” to rebuild the road to the Middle Ridge Forest Service cabin, Villarma said last December, when the money could go toward an escape route.
The $200,000 in planning money is a small piece in the $3.9 billion capital budget approved by the state Senate last week. About 80% of the spending is federal money dedicated for roads, airports, electrical transmission lines and improved internet service in rural communities.
Of the discretionary state money in the budget, Wrangell would receive $5 million to strengthen the century-old earthen dams that hold back the community’s water reservoirs. The state grant would pay to “reinforce both these dams with buttresses,” likely concrete, Villarma said last December.
The Senate bill also includes $26.5 million toward the University of Alaska’s $1.4 billion backlog of deferred maintenance work. The spending plan appropriates about $30 million split between rebates for homebuyers for new energy-efficient homes; weatherization projects to help reduce power bills; and new housing in rural communities for teachers and public safety workers, among others.
In addition, the budget includes $15 million to help fund a skilled-nursing facility at the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, intended to alleviate pressure at the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage, and $7.5 million for SeaShare, a nonprofit based in Washington state that provides fish to Alaska food banks and pantries.
Besides for adding items to the budget, the Senate deleted several of the governor’s requests, including the entire $4.5 million budget for the state corporation that has spent more than a decade promoting an Alaska North Slope natural gas pipeline project.
Despite spending several hundred million dollars on the gas pipeline venture, the state has attracted no partners, investors or customers for the development, estimated at $40 billion to $50 billion.
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