JUNEAU -- Supporters of the Juneau Access Project, the 50-mile road that would travel up Lynn Canal to a new ferry terminal that the state Department of Transportation and Public Facilities wants to build, are hoping that they can persuade new Gov. Bill Walker not to kill the project.
Walker has already said he's issued an order stopping new spending on the proposed $574 million road. That's one of six megaprojects around the state he says Alaska may no longer be able to afford due to falling oil prices.
But Juneau advocates of the controversial road are working hard to keep the project alive.
"To me it was very short-sighted, and not in the best interest of the state," said Dick Knapp, a member of the local advocacy group Citizens Pro-Road, of Walker's order to stop spending.
Knapp is a former commissioner of the DOT. The department's most recent commissioner, Pat Kemp of Juneau, lost his job last week after cautioning against ending the project.
The road issue is divisive in Juneau but the Juneau Chamber of Commerce has long supported the DOT's road plans, and criticized Walker's recent action.
"Obviously, we're unhappy about it," said Craig Dahl, the chamber's executive director, in an interview with KINY radio.
Some of the arguments the road supporters are making echo those made by Kemp in a memo to Walker, claiming that it would be costly to kill the Juneau road because of federal rules requiring reimbursement of federal money already expended.
But two Juneau legislators, Republican Rep. Cathy Munoz and Democratic Sen. Dennis Egan, are taking a more conciliatory tone in a letter they sent Walker Friday.
"Please accept our strong recommendation to continue the work at the Department towards completion of the environmental impact statement currently underway and close to completion," they wrote.
They thanked Walker for his support of the capital city, and said that keeping the project alive would be good for Juneau.
The draft EIS was completed last fall, and the department is now reviewing comments made at public hearings, as well as thousands of additional electronic comments.
A final decision is expected in the fall. The legislators said they anticipated it would recommend continuing work on the road, as opposed to doing nothing or selecting other road or ferry combinations.
While the federal money already received might have to be paid back if the project is canceled, the legislators say that completing the EIS needs to be done either way. If the project is deemed too costly to continue within the current budget environment, the EIS can be used to help persuade the Federal Highway Administration that Alaska shouldn't have to pay back anything, they said.
"It makes sense to complete the environmental process which is underway right now," Munoz said.
That stance was praised by Citizens Pro-Road.
"I'm assuming, or hoping, that at least they'll let us finish the EIS, and then make a decision on which way they are going to go with the road," said Sandy Williams, the group's current president.
He's also a former DOT employee, and is confident that at some point in the state's future a road will connect Juneau to the nation's road system. Roads will replace ferries everywhere they'd run next to each other, he said.
He just doesn't know when.
"I think that road is going to happen. Somewhere down the road, that road is going to happen," he said.
Juneau's third legislator, Democratic Rep. Sam Kito, didn't sign on to the Egan-Munoz letter but also doesn't believe the opponents' claims that the road is too difficult or dangerous to be built.
"As an engineer, I believe that the safety and environmental dangers can be mitigated," Kito said. "But the biggest concern I have is should we be building it, especially with the fiscal situation."
The current proposal, he said, is only an extension of the road to a new ferry terminal. It would continue to require a ferry trip to leave Juneau and would have higher operating costs than the current Alaska Marine Highway ferry service in Lynn Canal.
But he too thinks completing the EIS makes sense.
And some other opponents of the Juneau road say fears that cancelation of the project could lead to millions of dollars of repayment demands from the federal government are overblown.
The federal government is required under the National Environmental Policy Act to complete an EIS before big projects are undertaken, with those studies being required to include a "no action" alternative among the options.
Road opponent Emily Ferry of Juneau said it is unlikely that if Alaska studies the road and decides it is not cost effective to build, repayment would be demanded.
"The federal government consistently reimburses states for NEPA-related expenses, even when a No Action alternative is selected," she said.
Ferry said only money spent in advance on the project, such as right-of-way or engineering work, would likely be sought for reimbursement.
She said Kemp's letter arguing that the state faces $26 million in reimbursement costs didn't provide a cost breakdown but her own estimates of possible costs would be closer to $6 million.
And the federal government may not seek reimbursement at all. Other projects, including a previous version of the Juneau road in 2000, have been ended without such costs, she said.
The feds often want reimbursement for any right-of-way land that was purchased, she acknowledged, but it is unlikely that any such costs were incurred because most of the proposed road passes through the Tongass National Forest.
Munoz said that state money already appropriated for the Juneau road, including $35 million sought by the Juneau delegation last year, couldn't be spent for other purposes anyway.
"The general fund money is tied to the Juneau districts, and it's already been appropriated by the Legislature, so it would take the Legislature and the approval of the Juneau legislators to reallocate that to any other purpose," she said.
Walker has not said when final decisions on the suspended megaprojects will be made.