More than 20 million dollars are allocated to building the first 18 miles of the West Susitna Access Road in this year’s State budget. The funding is only a quarter of what will be needed to build it.
Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, or AIDEA, proposed the project to support mining companies that might use it as an access and haul road for products heading to Point MacKenzie. That proposal was not for public access and would extend all the way to the mining area, much farther than the initial 18 miles funded by the State.
Area residents were opposed to the road, unless it was open to the public, based on the Mat-Su Borough’s own survey. But that didn’t stop the Borough Assembly from voting in favor of including it in their list of State legislative priorities last fall.
Citing a separate survey conducted by the Friends of West Susitna that showed residents largely in favor of the project, the Assembly voted to push the State legislature to fund the first 18 miles on what could become an access road to a mining site. It remains unclear whether the public access portion of the road currently funded by the State will be a separate road network or if it will connect to the mining road to the west, if it is built.
The public comment period for the project is open from July 23rd through August 23rd at westsuaccess.com/
