The Haines Planning Commission’s newly elected members held their first meeting last week. They heard a presentation by the state’s Department of Transportation about the next phase of work on the Haines Highway.

 

The Haines Planning Commission’s membership got a complete makeover this fall. Voters passed a citizen initiative requiring planning commission members to be elected. The newly elected body held its first meeting, and members in turn elected their officers. Patty Brown was elected chair and Derek Poinsette as vice chair. Craig Loomis is the assembly liaison to the body.

The main agenda item at that first meeting was a review of phase three of the roadwork on the Haines Highway. This phase includes miles 20 to 25. That stretch of the highway passes by the village of Klukwan, goes through a rockslide area, and includes the bridge over the Chilkat River.    

Greg Lockwood is overseeing the project’s design for the state. He says the project will mostly consist of widening the existing highway. 

Lockwood: “There are some minor realignments through the roadway, we are trying to bring the roadway up to current standards, put in some shoulders, for bicyclists and also for safety.” 

At the rockslide at 23 miles, the DOT is proposing to put in some large culverts similar to the ones at 19 miles. These culverts are large enough for debris to flow through, and for equipment to work in, in case they do get plugged. But the 19 mile culverts have been showing signs of failure. 

Commissioner Erika Merklin wanted to know if those design flaws would be addressed.

Merklin: “They’ve shifted a lot and cracked, do you have any information about why that happened, and are these culverts going to be built in the same manner?” 

Lockwood responded that this part of the project was managed by another person and he didn’t feel prepared to speak about the details but he said the DOT is working on solving the issue.

Lockwood: “Our design consultant is modifying the design, doing some more geotech work up there than we did in the previous phase, and we don’t want to have anything happen like happened on that previous phase.”

The bridge over the Chilkat River also drew attention.

Lockwood: “The bridge is basically going to end up in this same location, and it will be a little wider so it has some shoulders. And because we are going to put it in the same spot, what we are going to do is build a temporary bridge on the downstream side of the existing bridge, and then they’ll demo the existing bridge and then install the new one.” 

Commissioner Eben Sargent said he would have liked to see the final plans for the bridge included in the meeting packet. 

Sargent: “How will the design compare to what we are familiar with there today? I’d be interested in impacts on river access. I guess it’s hard, personally, to approve something that I haven’t seen. Approve its lack of impact on our zoning ordinance I should say.”

Lockwood said that he could provide the plans but indicated that there may not be any further opportunity to comment.

Lockwood: “This is kind of the final review that we do with the planning commission or with the city to make sure that we are not interfering with any planning or zoning ordinances that you guys have. The actual structural bridge design plans, I didn’t provide, if you guys would like to look at those structural bridge plans I could send them to you.”

Lockwood says that although not every aspect of the highway design is settled on, the physical location of the highway has been determined. He says he expects the project to take three construction seasons, putting the completion date around fall of 2026.