Anchorage Daily News

The cities of Wasilla and Houston filed suit Tuesday seeking to stop a city-state transportation committee from considering a proposal to delay the Knik Arm crossing project.

The suit names the AMATS Policy Committee and the five state and city officials who comprise it. Anchorage Assembly members Sheila Selkregg and Patrick Flynn were served with the suit at Tuesday night's Assembly meeting. Selkregg and Flynn, along with acting Mayor Matt Claman, are voting members of the policy committee.

The AMATS technical committee has suggested pushing the bridge project from the short-term section of Anchorage's transportation plan to a longer-term section that would delay construction until sometime after 2018. That committee also suggested adding a railroad link to the span for vehicles, and to add pedestrian facilities. Both steps would increase the likely cost for the project.

The suit initially asks for a restraining order preventing the decision-making policy committee from acting on the recommendations for 10 days. The policy committee is scheduled to take up the issue Thursday.

The Assembly will take public testimony about it and a separate amendment to delete the bridge from the transportation plan altogether Wednesday night.

The mayors of the two Mat-Su borough towns complain that they weren't provided notice of the new suggestion from a technical committee of transportation experts last week. They also complain that the public hasn't had a chance for input.

The complaint says the bridge has regional impacts and significance, and that they should have a chance to weigh in.

In a brief interview Tuesday night, Selkregg said the AMATS is the entity set up under federal highway laws to make decisions about transportation and road issues in Anchorage. "This is an Anchorage long-range transportation plan," she said, not a Mat-Su plan.

The proposed 8,200-foot bridge would link Anchorage with Point MacKenzie in the Mat-Su.

The court papers ask for an order preventing the AMATS committee "from approving, voting on, ratifying or executing a proposed compromise amendment forged by the AMATS technical committee sometime last week." The case was filed in Anchorage Superior Court and will probably have its first hearing Wednesday or Thursday.

Contact reporter Don Hunter at dhunter@adn.com or 257-4349.

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