The Department of Transportation is continuing work on the Cooper Landing Bypass Project, a discussion that’s been ongoing for over 40 years.
Shannon McCarthy with the DOT…
McCarthy: “We are having the cooperating agencies take a look at the final EIS, and that’s the federal agencies. We expect to be able to release it to the public sometime in summer of 2017 with the record of decision to follow sometime that following winter.”
The DOT announced in December 2015 that the preferred route would be the G South Alternative, which would construct 5.5 miles of new alignment skirting north of Cooper Landing and the Kenai River, reconnecting with the existing alignment near MP 52.
Recently a letter to the DOT from about 19 Kenai Peninsula organizations and municipalities opposed that route, and expressed support for the Juneau Creek Alternative. That route would deviate from the existing alignment more than the other alternatives, creating about 10 of 14 miles of new alignment including a new bridge south of Juneau Creek Falls.
McCarthy says the opposition letter from the groups will be included in the information passed on.
McCarthy: “Well we definitely will take any public input and we will give that to the FHWA, the Federal Highway Administration and they’re ultimately the organization who selects the alignment, and we move forward from there.”
If a final decision is issued next winter, McCarthy says construction could start as soon as spring of 2019.
