Opinion: Anchorage’s Fish Creek Trail connection deserves our support

Thank you to the Anchorage Assembly for unanimously passing a resolution (AR 2024-407) to reaffirm the city’s commitment to the Fish Creek Trail. Recent efforts to pause work on this project came as a shock to the thousands of Anchorage residents who have advocated for this connection for decades. We appreciate the mayor, Assembly and project team for working quickly to untangle the issues surrounding this unexpected halt.

The Fish Creek Trail project is a commonsense connection to the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail. Since 2022, the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities and the city Department of Parks & Recreation have managed the project with extensive stakeholder and public engagement. This lengthy process was heading toward selection of the safest, most cost-effective, lowest-impact route that parallels the railroad tracks. This “preferred alternative” threads the needle within the Alaska Railroad right-of-way to avoid estuary habitat and remain within the approved budget.

The trail connection has overwhelming public support. Residents were successful in getting it adopted in the 1997 Anchorage Areawide Trails Plan, and voters approved four municipal park bonds from 2021 to 2024 totaling $450,000. A petition in support of the trail now has over 700 signatures. Federal funds account for 91% of the total project cost and are contingent on the trail being completed. If this trail is not completed, $1.1 million spent on planning, design and environmental documentation must be repaid to the federal government.

Unfortunately, the preferred alternative and overall project has some influential opposition that potentially led to the project’s pause. Fortunately, these issues are being addressed in real time. Issues raised by Marathon Oil and Gas, a stakeholder along the corridor, are now being addressed in coordination with the project team focusing on solutions that will not impede the project. Marathon’s pipeline and block valves already coexist within the existing municipal trail system and roadways throughout town. These issues were referred to during an AMATS Policy Committee meeting on Dec. 19, including requests for solutions during and after construction, visual barriers and enhanced security.

Also addressed during that meeting were two property owners’ claims of preferential rights to the railroad right-of-way and private access to a municipal road. The municipal attorney detailed how the proposed trail route is completely within the railroad right-of-way and that the road is public. These issues should not stop the project, but instead shape a better project for all.

At a time when Anchorage has seen a shocking number of pedestrians killed on the streets — the highest rate in over a decade — we know trails and sidewalks are essential for safe transportation. The pedestrian bridge at the south end of this trail connection is a stark reminder of this. In the fall of 1983, a 9-year-old student at Turnagain Elementary named David E. Blake was struck and killed by a driver while crossing Northern Lights Boulevard. A bridge was constructed in his memory, and today this elevated crossing is poised to extend the trail along the railroad corridor, providing a direct and safe route linking downtown to Spenard and Midtown, and everywhere in between, from the Coastal Trail to the Fish Creek Trail.

We appreciate the Assembly and mayor’s leadership to work with the project team and stakeholders to finalize the preferred alternative and continue moving the project forward. The public can show support for the trail connection by signing the petition at anchorageparkfoundation.org. For more information, visit fishcreektrail.com.

David Wight is the former CEO and president of Alyeska Pipeline Service Co.; Mike Jens is a former district superintendent of Alyeska Pipeline Service Co.; Ernie Hall is a former chair of the Anchorage Assembly; Gene Therriault is a Turnagain neighbor and former state senator; Beth Nordlund is executive director of the Anchorage Park Foundation; Alexa Dobson is executive director of Bike Anchorage; Karen Button is board president of Friends of Fish Creek; Lindsey Hajduk is community engagement director of NeighborWorks Alaska; Justin Therriault is a Turnagain neighbor; Gailyn Taylor and Meghan Holton are founding members of Fish Creek Trail to the Ocean.

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