News from Patrick Flynn

I received a postcard in the mail today.  It read as follows:

Notice to property owners

Freeway alternative recommended for further study:

• Ship Creek Bypass: Airport Heights to Cook Inlet
• Tidewater Freeway: Ship Creek to Minnesota at Benson

In the last six months, East Anchorage citizens rejected proposed freeway routs along Muldoon, Boniface, Bragaw, Airport Heights, Hyder and B Street.  Staff must now consider West Anchorage routes first proposed in 1957 and again in 1975.

Traffic signals currently delay the ten percent of drivers along the Gambell-Ingra couplet who do not end their trips in downtown or midtown.  A freeway connection will speed those through-trips by 5 seconds during non-peak hours.

Anchorage’s #1 transportation priority:  Highway to Highway, Long Range Transportation Plan Project #603.

2009 estimated cost: $700 million

Public meeting April 1, 2010, 7 pm-9pm, Location TBA

Contact Robert Moses or Jane Jacobs at INFO@WestAnchorage.com

Unsurprisingly, I’ve already heard from a couple neighbors who received the same postcard.  I contacted Katherine Wood at the Highway to Highway project office and, as I suspected, she confirmed that the card didn’t come from them.  In fact, the two names mentioned are somewhat legendary in Lower 48 highway planning circles (Google them for more information) but have no connection to Alaska.  Further the domain name mentioned is currently unregistered.  And, since the “meeting” is scheduled for April 1, this looks a lot like a hoax.  If so, I feel sorry for the perpetrators since I suspect some the folks who receive this card – people who dealt with the original Tidewater Freeway battle – may cause those perpetrators some physical harm!

Look for more “corrective” information on the H2H site soon.

Regards,

Patrick