The Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities (DOT&PF) is back at it with a bad idea for ferry service in Lynn Canal that would have negative impacts on passengers.
A ferry terminal at Cascade Point would impact Berners Bay and be located in a key spawning area for the remaining area herring population, which was once widespread throughout Lynn Canal and Auke Bay. Juneauites have long sought to protect Berners Bay from permanent development and construction of a ferry terminal there, as doing so would be an extremely short-sighted approach and a false solution to our community’s complex ferry system problems.
Instead of departing Juneau from the Auke Bay Ferry Terminal, passengers would be required to board 27 miles further north at the far end of the Juneau road system at a terminal owned by Goldbelt, Inc. The State Transportation Improvement Plan (STIP) amendment would have DOT&PF fund construction of the Cascade Point terminal through $30,000,000 in lease payments to Goldbelt.
The Alaska Marine Highway System has far more important needs.
That includes upgrading the MV Tazlina to have crew quarters, replacing mainline ferries and the MV Tustumena, and numerous ferry terminal modifications to accommodate the Alaska Class Ferry vessels — including at Angoon, Pelican, Cordova, Tatitlek, and Chenega, as well as mooring and ferry terminal bridge improvements throughout the system.
This is where you come in.
Please let DOT&PF know that the Cascade Point Ferry Terminal does not belong in the STIP! The STIP comment deadline is this Monday, August 15, 2022.
Comment on 2020-2023 STIP Amendment 4 here!
Or comment:
- By email: dot.stip@alaska.gov
- By fax: 907-465-6984
- Or by mail:
Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities
Division of Program Development
ATTN: STIP
PO BOX 112500
Juneau, AK 99811-2500
For additional resources, including a public input email form, please visit the Alaska Marine Highway Operations Board Public Engagement webpage.
Thank you so much,
Aaron Brakel, Inside Passage Waters Program Manager
