The Haines Borough has posted signs at the entrance to the newly reopened section of Beach Road, cautioning visitors against entering. As of Wednesday morning, it was unclear whether people would be cited for using the road, and no video cameras had been posted.
The Haines Borough has posted signs at the entrance to the newly reopened section of Beach Road that read, “Warning-Access prohibited. Area Under surveillance. Violators will be prosecuted. Area is geologically unstable and dangerous.” As of Wednesday morning, it was unclear whether people would be cited for using the road.
The assembly rescinded a resolution closing Beach Road at a meeting on April 13 after receiving a preliminary findings report on the stability of the area. Prior to April 13, the temporary access road had been limited to Beach Road residents on ATVs and on-foot.
Although the signs state that access is prohibited and violators will be prosecuted, discussion at a meeting of the newly formed Beach Road task force on April 16 suggests the borough doesn’t want to restrict access for everyone–it wants to limit access to Beach Road residents and essential services–and it doesn’t, at present, have plans to enforce the restriction.
At the April 16 meeting, neighborhood residents said they would prefer area access be limited to Beach Road property owners and essential services like emergency response and Delta Western. Some said they worried about looters entering unoccupied houses.
“If we had a camera installed and on the sign that says there’s a camera, it helps us with security. It also helps us with accountability because we know who’s over there,” Beach Road resident Todd Winkel said. As of Wednesday morning, there were no cameras posted at the entrance to the Beach Road slide area.
Other property owners suggested signage as a means of restricting access.
“(Interim manager Alekka Fullerton) said they’re going to continue to keep signs saying, “Beach Road residents only,’ and that will limit traffic,” Noble Anderson said, adding he’d been told by the Alaska Division of Parks that the popular Battery Point trail is closed.
Although the trail was closed in the immediate aftermath of the Dec. 2 landslide, the division said Wednesday afternoon that the closure will need to be reevaluated based on the reopening of Beach Road.
“(The Battery Point trail closure) is based on public safety. If it’s deemed safe for residents to live at their houses, it’ll more than likely be deemed safe for people to be on the trails,” ranger Brad Garasky said, adding that he needs to get in touch with the borough to confirm the status of Beach Road before he can make a definitive statement about the trail reopening.
Mayor Douglas Olerud said Friday that the borough is asking the general public to stay off the newly opened temporary access road and out of the Beach Road neighborhood, but he doesn’t think it’s enforceable.
“We either can close the road or we can open the road,” Olerud said. “(Fullerton’s) take on that was that we can’t have it available for borough staff to be on the road if it’s (limited) to residents only… We can have signage there that it’s encouraged that it (remain) residents only, but I don’t know if we can cite anybody that’s a non-resident for taking their bicycle across the pioneer road.”
The Beach Road is a borough-owned road.
Police chief Heath Scott in a Wednesday interview said he hasn’t had a chance to discuss enforcement with Olerud and referred questions to the Mayor.
Olerud said Monday that another reason the borough is asking the general public to stay out is because of the fragile nature of the temporary access road Colaska put in earlier this year. As the ground thaws, the road is turning to mud. In the days immediately after the assembly opened the road, it remained impassable for vehicles because of a deep trough on the east side of the slide path. The borough’s public facilities department addressed the issue on April 16.
On April 15, a trough in the newly reopened temporary access road prevented Beach Road residents from entering or leaving the neighborhood in vehicles. In this photo, Phil Pink decides to turn back in his ATV after consulting with Todd Winkel. Borough public facilities employees repaired the road the following day.
At the Beach Road task force meeting, members discussed the need to improve temporary access road conditions, a step that must occur before AP&T will consent to restoring power.
Olerud said it will likely be a while before a new, permanent road can be built.
“It needs to be engineered, and in order for the engineers to do it, they need to do the second phase of their (geotechnical) study,” Olerud said. The study likely won’t take place until later this spring.
The two options for short-term road fixes, outlined in the preliminary findings report from the geotechnical study, are reinforcing the existing temporary access road and excavating slide debris down to the original road. While more costly, excavating down to the original road has the advantage of being something that needs to happen before more permanent repairs can occur.
On Friday, Olerud said he’s concerned it might not qualify as an emergency expense reimbursable by FEMA. He said he would try to get an answer from state officials. As of Tuesday, he said discussions were still ongoing.