Questions have been raised about how Chilkat River users – such as rafting companies – will co-exist with several years of work on the Haines Highway.
Consequently, the Haines Borough Assembly unanimously approved creation of an ad hoc committee to work on how raft companies, other river users, the public and the state transportation department can co-exist when work begins next year on the highway.
The state plans to straighten out, widen and otherwise upgrade the highway from Mile 3.5 to Mile 26 over several years.
Meanwhile, the borough’s Tourism Advisory Board sent a memo to the assembly pointing out concerns raised by Haines’ three rafting companies about the construction blocking access to the river.
The rafting companies are worried about the access and pull-out points at mile markers 13, 14, just north of 14, 15 and 26. Statistics were unavailable this week on the number of rafting customers that use the river.
“The Chilkat River float trips are one of the most sought after excursions in Haines, as well as a main area of recreation and subsistence for locals,” the tourism board memo said.
The river also contains a salmon spawning area offshore from Mile 14.
Meanwhile, the state plans to begin its $100 million overhaul work at Mile 3.5 and work its way north. If the work begins in 2017, it will likely take two years to reach Mile 12, said Jeremy Woodrow, spokesman for the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities.
Woodrow said the transportation department requires contractors to produce traffic control and access plans to cover all stages of construction in a stretch of highway. Sometimes, access points to a river might be blocked because of inevitable work in front of it, the placement of heavy equipment or nearby blasting, he said.
However, the state usually works with the public and contractors to ensure access is open as much as possible, Woodrow said.
In an email, Andy Hedden of Haines Rafting Co. wrote: “Tour operators have to adhere to a strict time schedule to accommodate cruise ship passengers. … With three companies operating on roughly the same schedule, fewer access points means tour operators are all in the same place at the same time. We (rafting companies) do a good job of working together to avoid each other and there is plenty of space on the river. But the put-ins and take-outs are already a choke point.”
Hedden continued: “Eliminating access points will put concentrated pressure on the remaining ones and as demand grows more users will have to share increasingly crowded spaces and rafting companies aren’t the only users. Fish and Game, sport fishermen, subsistence users and hunting guides all use these same access points.”