Coast Guard seeks bridge comments

MAT-SU — The U.S. Coast Guard is accepting comments on an application from the Knik Arm Bridge and Toll Authority that contains a pretty detailed description of what that bridge will look like.

The Coast Guard put out a request for comments June 24 and intends to accept them through July 24.

“The stated purpose of this regional transportation project is to provide a more efficient movement of freight, goods and people with a shorter connection between Anchorage, the Mat-Su Borough and Interior Alaska to meet the land transportation needs of existing and projected population growth,” according to the Coast Guard’s summary of the bridge application.

The Coast Guard has to approve any kind of span over any navigable waterway — generally understood to be any waterway large enough to use a boat on.

But, at 50 feet above the water at high tide and 79 feet above it at low tide, “the project will not impede access to and along the relevant waterway,” according to the Coast Guard.

It might, however, impact the habitat of the Cook Inlet Beluga Whale, according to the Coast Guard, and because of that the Knik Arm Bridge and Toll Authority is coordinating the project with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service.

According to the Coast Guard, the bridge will be 9,200 feet long with a 1,800-foot approach on the Mat-Su side and an 8,900-foot approach on the Anchorage side. The initial bridge will have two lanes and shoulders, but the idea is to eventually expand it to four lanes. Supporting the roadbed will be 32 piers spaced 275 feet apart.

“The crossing will connect with new roadway embankments located on each side to the existing transportation infrastructure.

Maps attached to the solicitation for comments show the road coming off of the bridge connecting to Point MacKenzie Road at Mile 9.5 after skirting around Lake Loraine to the north, unlike Port MacKenzie Road, which runs around that lake’s southern edge.

Exactly how that new road will connect to existing highways is still a matter of discussion and concern. The current roads that connect there are Knik-Goose Bay Road — which is listed as among the most dangerous in the state due to the volume of traffic it handles — and Burma Road, a windy dirt road likely impassable to loaded semi trucks most of the year. Burma also has the added disadvantage of routing traffic through Big Lake, where residents have repeatedly said that a different route is preferable.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 orandrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.

What: KABATA’s application for a permit from the U.S. Coast Guard

When: Comments are due by July 24

How: In writing to the Office of the Commander, 17th Coast Guard District, P.O. Box 25517, Juneau, AK 99802