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Gravina Island Highway: Ketchikan's "road to nowhere" (long, with photos)

Started by oscar, May 18, 2016, 03:58:02 PM

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oscar

Ketchikan, Alaska is infamous for the now-abandoned plan to expensively bridge the strait between the city and its international airport on Gravina Island, dubbed (IMO, unfairly) a "bridge to nowhere". Less publicized is that, before the bridge project was cancelled, an approach road about three miles long was built to connect the airport with the proposed crossing, which to this day is state-maintained and an unnumbered state highway. Ex-Gov. Frank Murkowski, on his way out of office, rammed through contracts for this and some other controversial road construction projects. His successor Sarah Palin (per the official story) was able to cancel the other contracts, but not the one for the Gravina Island Highway.

On Sunday morning 5/15, I took my car on the shuttle ferry from Ketchikan to Gravina Island that remains, without the abandoned bridge project, the only surface route from the city to the airport (EDIT: see my separate trip report on the ferry). I then drove a local road past the airport terminal to the GIH. Both the GIH and most of the connecting road to the airport are unpaved and potholed in places, but my low-clearance Prius handled them with little difficulty. OTOH, this really is a "road to nowhere" -- apparently none of Gravina Island's few dozen residents live along the road, and there's nothing else there other than perhaps hunting opportunities. I saw only one other vehicle during my hour or so exploring the road.



^  The north end of the GIH viewed from the north, which begins at its intersection with Lewis Reef Rd. from the airport.



^  This sign at the Lewis Reef intersection notes that the GIH is unmaintained in the winter, which even at Ketchikan's relatively southern latitude lasts more than five months.



^  Around mile 0.3 from the Lewis Reef intersection, this is the first of two similar concrete bridges on the GIH (the second bridge is around mile 1.3). For this bridge, the transition from the gravel roadbed to the concrete deck is particularly rough, and is one of the places on the GIH you want to slow down from the posted 35 mph speed limit to work your way around or through the potholes.



^  Two ponds along the northbound side of the GIH, near mile 1.0.




^  The GIH ends at this cul-de-sac at mile 3.3. The second photo is a closeup of Pennock Island in the background, which is in the strait between Gravina Island and Ketchikan. The final proposed routing for the strait crossing, before the project was canceled, called for a pair of bridges -- a high-level bridge between Pennock Island and AK 7 south of downtown Ketchikan, and a short lower-level bridge here from Gravina Island to Pennock Island. The bridge routing was complicated by the need to make room for tall cruise ships and large ferry and other vessels, without intruding on airspace needed for jets and other planes using the airport.




^  North of the GIH-Lewis Reef intersection, the roadway continues north. I don't know the name of that road (could be part of Lewis Reef Rd.), or whether it is state- or locally-maintained. The road remains about as wide as the GIH, but has more potholes. At about 0.8 mile north of the GIH-Lewis Reef intersection, there are these views across the strait of the Ketchikan's northern outskirts along AK 7.



^  About a half-mile farther north is this narrow wood-deck bridge, and a "No Road Maintenance - Proceed At Own Risk" warning sign. The road splits beyond the bridge, apparently to connect to the rest of the island's road network and its few residents. I thought the split might be a good place to turn back toward the airport, especially with rain forecast for later that day.



^  Heading back to the airport, Lewis Reef Rd. passes under the airport runway before turning north to the terminal and the shuttle ferry back across the strait to AK 7. The buildings in the background are on the other side of the strait.
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kkt


triplemultiplex

Quote from: oscar on May 18, 2016, 03:58:02 PM


^  Around mile 0.3 from the Lewis Reef intersection, this is the first of two similar concrete bridges on the GIH (the second bridge is around mile 1.3). For this bridge, the transition from the gravel roadbed to the concrete deck is particularly rough, and is one of the places on the GIH you want to slow down from the posted 35 mph speed limit to work your way around or through the potholes.

This was the view underneath that bridge when I was there in August 2014.  A couple dozen Chum Salmon (aka "Dog" Salmon") were trapped in the one large pool beneath the bridge.  They got up there a few days earlier when there was more rain and the creek was higher.  It's called Government Creek, of all things.



That Gravina Island Highway is an interesting bit of roadway.  I remember those deep potholes and the abrupt ends of a major-looking two lane highway that was never paved.  I can see that road slowly getting taken over by vegetation over the next three decades until it's just a two-track path through dense brush and small trees.

The tunnel under the airport runway was clearly constructed with the idea that it would see way more traffic with the bridge.  There is a system of signals designed stop all traffic to allow larger trucks to drive down the center of the tunnel so they can avoid the lower clearances at the normal lane-edges.  You can clearly see in Oscar's picture of the tunnel the sidewalk incorporated into facility as well.

There is hardly anything on Gravina Island other than the airport, so the bridge did seem like a total waste of money.  But the argument for it was that it would open all that land for development.  Ketchikan is a very dense city for its size.  The core of the city clings to a steep hillside in an extended strip along the Tongass Narrows.  Gravina Island is considerably flatter and already cut-over, so it would have been very, very attractive to development; especially for the city's more well-to-do residents.  The stated function of better connecting the city to its airport was a bit of a canard.  The ferry every 15 minutes is perfectly capable of serving this small town and it's small airport.  Really it was developers who wanted to turn the eastern flank of Gravina Island into subdivisions that pushed this bridge.  Or at least that's what some locals told me between swigs of Rainier. ;) :-D
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