Wasilla track project showcased

BOB MARTINSON/Frontiersman reporter

WASILLA - A projected realignment of railroad tracks near Fairview Loop and the Parks Highway took center stage Wednesday at an open house the Alaska Railroad Corp. hosted in Wasilla, to showcase statewide rail projects under consideration.

The railroad placed large placards on easels around a room at Evangelo's restaurant, depicting places in Healy, Seward and Whittier as well as Wasilla. Several railroad representatives were on hand to answer questions at the casual gathering, but there were no presentations given.

The corporation's project aims to reduce track curvature and improve safety by removing road crossings along the route from Girdwood to Wasilla. This would be accomplished by straightening many sharp bends in the Fairview Loop and south Wasilla areas, and constructing a possible railroad bypass of Wasilla.

Resident Jim Carson, an original Colony settler who said he "co-exists with the railroad," owns land where the railroad crosses Fairview Loop, which has long been known as "Carson's Crossing."

"According to [the railroad's] plan, it looks like they will have to move a couple of houses and cut down through my lower field, right through the middle, and that kind of concerns me," he said. "One of them is my house and I've been living in it for about 70 years and I'm starting to get used to it."

Many residents who either live near the proposed sites or will be affected by a realignment were on hand, as well as Mat-Su Borough Mayor Tim Anderson and Assembly Member Talis Colberg. Wasilla Mayor Dianne M. Keller did not attend.

The railroad has not yet acquired much land for the project and is still knocking around ideas.

"The only land we've purchased was an acquisition near Mile 154, that had house construction imminent, I think 11 lots was what it was, so we bought that before things were built there," said Chris Anderson, program manager for land and right of way for the corporation.

Mark Peterburs, director of project management for the ARRC, said the project would be progressing at a faster clip if funding were in place.

"But for now where it is, there is first an idea floated, public comment is taken, planning, then environmental studies, more public comments and then development of the plan and actual construction, all of which takes a few years," Peterburs said. "We have just completed an environmental draft or assessment through HDR Alaska Inc. of this planning area, but have not done an environmental impact statement. It is still very early in the process, the earliest you might see something is about 2006."

Tim Thompson, a spokesperson for ARRC, said the environmental assessment needs to be forwarded to the Federal Transit Administration for approval and then a public-comment period will open sometime this spring.

Initial public and agency scoping meetings were held July 23, 2003 in Wasilla. Four alternatives, including a no-build alternative, are detailed in drawings available at www.alaskarailroad.com.