The Department of Transportation project coordinator for the Juneau Access Project will speak at a Haines Chamber of Commerce lunch at noon Friday in the Halsingland Hotel’s Captain’s Room.
Though the Chamber initially scheduled project manager Gary Hogens to attend, project coordinator Jason Bluhm will speak instead.
Hogens said Bluhm will talk about the past, present and future of the road project. “What we are going to do is give a status of the project, a little bit of history, where things stand and also a preview of the upcoming public comment period,” Hogens said.
The project’s draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement will be released this summer, he said, and public hearings on the document will be held in Haines, Skagway and Juneau.
“We’ve developed a new alternative and updated analysis information and that will all be presented in the draft,” Hogens said.
“New information has developed. We can’t speak to it in advance of (the draft SEIS) being released,” he added.
Hogens said the draft was intended to be released by now, but DOT is still resolving “internal deliberations.”
One point Bluhm will address is how people can engage in the process and comment during the 45-day public review of the draft SEIS.
Chamber office manager Shori Heaton said Bluhm will field questions.
Heaton said residents around town are suspicious the decision to build a road already has been made. “The rumor is it has already been decided and that it is done. We want to see what is actually happening,” she said.
Gov. Sean Parnell penciled in $35 million for the Juneau Access Project for the state’s fiscal year 2015 budget.