Opinion: A highway up the Chester Creek greenbelt is just wrong for Anchorage

The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities is evaluating alternatives to connect the Glenn and Seward Highways. One of these options (Alternative D) would construct a four-lane highway up through the Chester Creek greenbelt and Eastchester Park from the Seward Highway to Airport Heights. Because constructing a road through dedicated parkland can only be done if there are no other viable alternatives, DOT has come up with the legally questionable idea that putting the road up in the air over the park would allow them to circumvent the law. DOT is proposing to build an elevated viaduct — a road built on columns — alongside Chester Creek and up through the greenbelt.

When this idea was first floated last February, it was a highway. In its latest incarnation, it has a lower posted speed limit, fewer lanes, and is called a “parkway.” But since it will carry much of the traffic of the Glenn and Seward highways, the new name is just camouflage. It is still a highway.

With a highway over it, the Chester Creek trail and greenbelt will no longer be the park generations of Anchorage residents have long enjoyed and visitors admire. The noise and pollution from four lanes of elevated traffic will spread throughout the greenbelt and adjacent residential neighborhoods. Imagine a busy and noisy elevated highway within a few hundred feet of homes and apartments in Rogers Park, Airport Heights, Eastridge, South Fairview, the Anchorage Senior Center, Shiloh Baptist Church and low-income housing. And it would be even more unfortunate if this elevated road became a roof for a linear camp for the unsheltered, something no one wants to see.

Recent traffic modeling by Anchorage Metropolitan Area Transportation Solutions (AMATS) shows that the existing connection of the Glenn and Seward Highways via Ingra and Gambell streets is fully functional for today’s traffic now and decades into the foreseeable future. The reason for this current connection study is that there is a need to enhance the safety of pedestrians and improve neighborhood connections and quality of life in the Ingra/Gambell corridor. These are commendable goals, but they should not be achieved at the expense of seriously degrading the quality of Chester Creek parkland or the livability of other neighborhoods.

An alternative that has received considerable support and would largely meet the goals of Fairview is the “2050 MTP” (Metropolitan Transportation Plan) alternative. This alternative would reduce Gambell and Ingra Streets from four lanes to three lanes each way and provide non-motorized improvements. These changes can be made relatively quickly and inexpensively to improve pedestrian safety in Fairview and promote healthy neighborhood redevelopment. AMATS has modeled the “2050 MTP” alternative and expects that future regional vehicle delay will be largely the same as if no changes are made to the corridor.

DOT is also evaluating two tunnel alternatives, which would have few negative effects on neighborhoods, property or parklands. But the tunnel projects and the Chester Creek viaduct would be much more expensive to build and maintain than the 2050 MTP alternative.

The bottom line is that DOT needs to find a solution that works for Fairview but is not a route up Chester Creek. Alternative D, the route up the Chester Creek Greenbelt, would cause enormous damage to parks and neighborhoods, and it is wrong for Anchorage. Alternative D should be adamantly opposed by all who cherish our parklands and care about Anchorage neighborhoods.

The most recent DOT alternatives report can be read and comments submitted at sewardglennconnection.com. Comments are due by Jan. 23, 2025.

Bob Butera, Dave Evans and Dave Gardner are residents of the Rogers Park and Airport Heights neighborhoods.

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