Southeast Roadbuilders finished paving Chilkoot Lake Road last week and the $1.6 million improvement project, more than 10 years in the making, is nearly complete. The project’s completion will come with more regulatory oversight, said Alaska State Parks Southeast Superintendent Preston Kroes. Parks will also institute boat-launch and day-use fees at all state parks “in the very near future,” he said.
Kroes said management changes will address past problems including unleashed dogs biting hikers and disturbing wildlife and weir workers, people getting too close to bears, illegal parking, and vehicles stopping in the roadway creating congestion and safety issues.
“Some existing park regulations will be much more strictly enforced to prevent pet violations, weir safety zone infractions, parking, bear attractants/food storage violations, and even the wildlife-viewing practices in order to lower the potential risk for human/bear interactions,” Kroes said. “It is very possible some of these new management plans and enforcement practices will have a zero-tolerance policy associated with them to curtail the unwanted, unethical or dangerous activities we have seen in the past.”
Kroes said Parks is deciding whether to institute the changes over time or all at once. The agency this year closed the road to winter vehicle traffic for the first time, a plan that Kroes said will continue.
The scope of work included culvert installation, bear-viewing platforms, a paved pedestrian walkway, signage and paving and striping. Work began last fall and restarted in mid-May where workers built a concrete bear-viewing platform, finished grading the road, installed interpretive panels and road signs and paved the road that had been plagued by potholes.
The area known as the Chilkoot River Corridor is infamous for overcrowding and close calls between people and bears, and has long concerned local and state officials. The Haines Borough Assembly in 2018 issued a moratorium on new tour permits to minimize overcrowding.
Alaska Nature Tours operator Dan Egolf said he’s looking forward to getting back to business on a smooth road. He said he’s concerned about the lack of available parking compared to the old road.
The road was leveled which caused some embankments to steepen.
Nearby resident Richard Buck said he’s happy that there’s less parking. He said he’s concerned that the road is too narrow and that fishing access will be difficult due to this . “If I were a fisherman, which I am at times, it’s going to be very difficult getting to the water.”
The majority of project funding, 75%, came from a $1.5 million Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Program grant Parks received from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in 2018. A 25% match was provided by funds the Alaska Legislature set aside in 2011. A plan for the site was completed in 2014.
The project was delayed in 2019 after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service sought additional cultural studies to avoid potential impact to Tlingit cultural artifacts and again in 2020 due to pandemic concerns. Nothing was found during the reconstruction, Kroes said.
*This story was updated June 30, 2021 to accurately reflect the project’s funding source.