Denali State Park gets $1 million grant for center

DENALI STATE PARK — A $1 million grant announced last week brings grand plans for a South Denali Visitor Complex one step closer to reality.

The money from the U.S. Department of Transportation will fund the Visitor Contact Station at the transportation hub of the future center.

“It’s kind of a smaller version of the main visitor center that will be on top of Curry Ridge,” said Wayne Biessel, area superintendent for Alaska State Parks.

When the complex is completed, visitors will park at the transportation hub at the foot of the ridge before they are bused up to the main center.

“We are trying to obtain funding for each component,” Biessel said.

This grant will fund the construction of the building at the parking lot just off the Parks Highway at Mile 134.5.

The 3,000-square-foot building will be staffed year-round, Biessel said. It will include general information about the park and interpretive information about the natural surroundings. The contact center will be where people will wait for the bus to take them up to the main center and act as the trail head for those looking to do the 4-mile climb on foot.

“In a nutshell, it will be an entry point into the visitor center, and the park itself,” Biessel said.

Projects funded by federal dollars always require environmental overviews, he said, and the environmental impact statement and geotechnical work for the contact center is being done now. With money in hand, Biessel said he hopes to get a design-build contract shortly. It’s possible the contact station will open late 2010 or 2011, he said, and it amounts to a crucial first step for the larger project.

“This is the first real funding for a facility in the (South Denali Visitor Complex) project,” Biessel said. “We’re still looking for funding for the main center. The federal funds haven’t been secured yet.”

When completed, the complex will compete with Denali National Park, Biessel said in a previous interview. Just a day’s drive from Anchorage, the main center will offer northwest views of Mt. McKinley and increased access to Alpine areas of the state park. It will all be done to strict environmental standards, he said.

The end result will be a “big boom for the economic stimulus of the Mat-Su,” Biessel said, with private industry developing around the new public facility.

“It will take the burden off the National Park. They have to turn people away,” he said. “National Parks is more preservation oriented. State Parks is more access oriented.”

In a related grant, State Parks received $80,000 for interpretive signs on the Parks Highway as it runs through Denali.

“It’s a special highway. It has national significance,” Biessel said. “It deserves some recognition.”

Contact Todd L. Disher at todd.disher@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.