State of Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities

Public Meeting

Copper River Highway Planning and Environmental Linkage Study

The Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities (DOT&PF) invites you to a public meeting to discuss your ideas and options (preliminary alternates) on what it would take to reconstruct, repair, and replace the damaged transportation infrastructure along a segment of the Copper River Highway, from approximately Milepost (MP) 27 through Abercrombie Creek, approximate MP 51. 

DOT&PF’s Northern Region Director, Ryan Anderson, P.E. will be hosting this discussion, along with other members of the Copper River Highway Planning and Environmental Linkage (PEL) team.  We encourage your participation in what we hope to be a fun and engaging conversation.

PEL studies are a flexible approach that offers planning organizations the options to use the transportation planning process to produce decisions or analyses that can later be adopted or cited by reference into the subsequent National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) document.  A PEL study is particularly useful when there is a large study area and it’s unlikely that funding will be available to address all the issues or the entire area in a single project, as is the case with this PEL study. 

In order for a PEL study to be incorporated by reference into the NEPA document it must be in compliance with the ten statutory conditions listed 23 U.S. Code §168 - Integration of planning and environmental review (Section 168).  One of which is to provide public notice that the resulting planning products may be adopted during a subsequent NEPA process in accordance with Section 168.  Accordingly, the DOT&PF is providing public notice that the Copper River Highway PEL study may be adopted by reference during the subsequent NEPA process in accordance with Section 168.

Some of the goals the DOT&PF hopes to achieve during this meeting is to:

• Reach general consensus within the community that the PEL’s draft Purpose and Need statement is accurate and complete.

• Solicit the community for their ideas (alternatives) on how to best address the project elements cited within the draft PEL, and request their participation on deciding which preliminarily alternatives should be eliminated do to it being unreasonable.

• Solicit the community for their preference on which project element should be completed first and their preference in sequencing the remaining project elements

                                          The Cordova Center

                            Community Room A and 2^nd floor Atrium

                                           601 First Street

                                           Cordova Alaska

                                           Tuesday December 17, 2019

                                           11:00 am-2:00 pm

The environmental review, consultation, and other actions required by applicable Federal environmental laws for this project are being, or have been, carried out by the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (DOT&PF) pursuant to 23 U.S.C. 327 and a Memorandum of Understanding dated November 3, 2017 and executed by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and DOT&PF.

Furthermore, the Copper River Highway PEL study is being developed in accordance with the following special purpose regulations including Sections 4(f) of the Department of Transportation Act; 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act; 7 of the Endangered Species Act, and the Executive Orders 11988 (Floodplain Management); 11990 (Wetlands Protection); 12898 (Environmental Justice); 11593 (Protection and Enhancement of the Cultural Environment); and 13112 (Invasive Species).

The Draft Copper River Highway PEL study can be reviewed through the following website:  http://aws.state.ak.us/OnlinePublicNotices/.  If you would like to be sent a paper copy of this draft documents or provide comments outside the public meeting please contact Jeff Stutzke, P.E. at the address below by January 17, 2019. 

Jeff Stutzke, P.E., Engineering Manager
Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities
2301 Peger Road, Fairbanks, AK 99709

¦ Phone: (907) 451-5389; ¦ Fax: (907) 451-5126; ¦ E-mail: jeff.stutzke@alaska.gov

Persons with a hearing impairment can contact the Department at our Telephone Device for the Deaf; number (907) 451-2363.  Before including your address, phone number, e-mail address, or other personal identifying information in your comment please be advised that your entire comment, including your personal identifying information, may be made publicly available at any time. While you can ask us in your comment to withhold from public review your personal identifying information, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so.