By PAULETTE SIMPSON
The latest version of the capital budget reappropriates approximately $37 million from designated Juneau Access funds for use as federal match for transportation projects all over Alaska. Considering the State’s precarious financial position, I can’t blame the Legislature for re-appropriating these funds. Nonetheless, the story must be told.
During the Clinton Administration, (1993-2001) the timber industry in Southeast Alaska shed some 4,000 direct and indirect jobs – mostly in Ketchikan, Sitka and Wrangell. The population of Southeast has been in serious decline ever since. Alaska Marine Highway System (AMHS) ridership has mirrored the region’s demographic slide.
In 2024, the AMHS carried 185,000 passengers and 65,000 vehicles – down from a peak of nearly 400,000 passengers and 110,000 vehicles during the early 1990s.
To keep the AMHS from drowning in a sea of red ink, due to ever-increasing costs and declining ridership, when Governor Murkowski came into office (2002-2006), the state correctly changed course and appropriated $60 million for Juneau Access – the construction of a road connecting the Capital City to the Alaska highway system.
This road option had actually been selected by Murkowski’s predecessor, Gov. Tony Knowles, in early January 2000 as the “preferred alternative” to address transportation in Southeast. Knowles, however, abruptly suspended work on the project a few weeks later and ordered the construction of two untested “fast ferries.” Note: British Colombia had just shut down its “fast ferry” program.
Knowles’ two ferries cost Alaska about $80 million plus another $50 million for terminal modifications. Expensive to operate and problematic from the get-go, the ships failed miserably and eventually were sold for $5 million.
Why Juneau Access: By shortening the northern terminus of the system by 100 miles and eliminating the need for two mainline ferries in Lynn Canal, hundreds of millions of dollars in capital and operating outlays could be saved. Southeast would then have an integrated, efficient and reliable transportation network that both the state and users could afford.
For over 20 years, local road advocacy groups met to promote Juneau Access. Often in attendance to offer expertise were three retired engineers who had served in leadership positions with the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (DOT) – Bob Martin, Jon Scribner and Sandy Williams.
We called them our “Road Scholars.” They loved Alaska and especially loved Juneau. All were men of competence and integrity, dedicated subject-matter experts in their chosen field of engineering. A commonality they shared was their devotion to the cause of Juneau Access. They supported the project from both a professional and community perspective.
In a 2002 Juneau Empire “My Turn,” Bob Martin articulated his staunch support for Juneau Access by characterizing it as fundamentally a freedom issue. Bob’s ending quote arguing in favor of the road was, “Let my people go!”
Jon Scribner was never more animated than when talking with his dear friend (and former Juneau mayor) Jamie Parsons about the need for Juneau Access.
Sandy Williams was our Road Scholar historian who arrived in Juneau at statehood in 1959 and worked to plan, design and construct our new state’s transportation system. When Sandy testified before the Legislature, he enlightened lawmakers about the early days when the Alaska Marine Highway Service (AMHS) was first initiated, noting that it was never meant to provide a permanent solution to transportation in Southeast Alaska. In fact, the AMHS was conceived as an interim service to coastal communities. Roads were always envisioned as the state developed its infrastructure.
Our data-driven Road Scholars knew that to sustain and ultimately save the AMHS, and the island communities that depend on it, ferry links all over Southeast, not just northern Lynn Canal, had to be shortened, and roads built wherever possible.
The benefit to the environment has always been that automobiles (like Juneau’s 1,000 electric vehicles) driving a highway burn exponentially less fossil fuel than a ferry does to carry those vehicles the same distance.
When Gov. Bill Walker and his handlers sank Juneau Access in 2017, they lit a match to $30 million worth of professional engineering, economic and environmental studies* that validated the 51-mile road project. This, perhaps inadvertently, effectively scuttled the AMHS.
Unspent Juneau Access funds, however, remained in place and many held out hope that the project would eventually be revived. Apparently, that is not to be.
In the end, the loss is due to the total lack of vision and leadership of so-called “public servants” who caved to political manipulation, environmentalist hyperbole and sentimental arguments – in full denial of reality – instead of building Southeast for the future.
It won’t happen in my lifetime, but hopefully, a new generation of leadership will someday usher in a new era of sensible and sustainable travel in Southeast – by shortening ferry runs and building roads wherever feasible.
Until then, we’re just re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
* https://ftfakfoundation.org/area-of-focus/juneau-access/
Paulette Simpson is a longtime Juneau resident and civic leader.
