Juneau Empire columnist Win Gruening should have reviewed Rich Moniak’s Jan. 29 column before coming out with his inaccurate comparison of Norway’s Route E-39 to Alaska’s proposed Katzehin Road.
He would have read that the area served by Norway’s E-39 road contains more than 1.5 million people and 100 cities and villages; not a good basis for comparing that highway’s demand with one that would serve Lynn Canal’s tiny population.
And contrary to Norway city mayors on E-39 lobbying for the ferry replacement projects, our sister cities of Haines and Skagway have definitively said they don’t want the Katzehin Road to be built.
[My Turn: Norway understands the value of roads, why don’t we?]
Gruening’s additional references to the benefits of the Katzehin road outweighing its costs are similarly misguided, in the face of the Alaska Department of Transportation’s own analysis, which shows that it will have a benefit-cost ratio of 0.28 (28 cents returned for every dollar spent). In addition, DOT showed that it will cost $5 million more per year in state dollars to operate and maintain the Katzehin Road than it will to operate the existing Lynn Canal ferry routes (this is $193 million over the 36-year life of the project).
Similarly, his reference to a “seven-hour travel time of a mainline ferry’ is deceptive, since the Fairweather makes that run in just over two hours.
I supported Gov. Bill Walker in reducing my Permanent Fund Dividend check to try to bring some semblance of responsibility to state spending, but that fiscal responsibility seems like it would evaporate if the state ends up blowing money on the fiscally irresponsible Katzehin road.
Dick Farnell,
Juneau