Oppose the Safer Seward Highway Project That Would Damage Chugach State Park

I am writing to urge you to oppose the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities' Safer Seward Highway Project, which would construct a 20-mile, four-lane highway from Rabbit Creek to Bird Flats. This project would cause irreparable damage to Chugach State Park and one of our most treasured recreational resources. The proposed construction would devastate the Turnagain Arm Trail, a 9½-mile pathway that serves thousands of Alaskans year-round. This trail is unique among Chugach pathways as one of the few accessible in all seasons, used by hikers, families, dog walkers, and trail runners of varying skill levels. The draft environmental assessment reveals that the project would require blasting and excavation creating road cuts between 200 and 400 feet high across substantial portions of the 20-mile zone. In places, these quarry-like cuts would rise nearly to the existing trail itself, destroying the forest buffer that currently shields visitors from highway noise and preserving the sense of wildness that makes this trail special. The trail offers exceptional wildlife viewing opportunities. I have personally encountered moose, black and brown bears, Dall sheep, lynx, coyotes, porcupines, and weasels along this corridor. The environmental assessment provides only brief and dismissive discussion of impacts to Dall sheep, and fails to adequately address how bears and other mammals will be affected or potentially driven from the area entirely. The 15 to 20-year construction timeline means much of the trail will be closed for substantial periods with no timeframe provided for replacement. Nancy Pease, an Anchorage land-use planner and member of the project's Stakeholder Working Group, confirms that proposed road cuts will compromise or ruin treasured viewpoints where elevated northbound lanes will be in full view and earshot. The character and attributes of the Turnagain Arm Trail are irreplaceable. I urge you to oppose this project and demand that DOT reconfigure its vision to protect this half-million-acre wildland that serves as Anchorage's backyard wilderness.