The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities will host two meetings today to talk about the agency’s study of airports in and around the Denali Borough.
The study is being done to determine which of the eight existing airports should be improved to best serve the needs of the borough’s pilots and public.
State Transportation officials scheduled today’s meetings largely in response to community requests to upgrade the existing Healy River Airport, just east of the Parks Highway. But the DOT official heading-up the study says there are some drawbacks to that proposal
“Healy River is a leased property from the Alaska Railroad, and the lease is expired,” says Brett Nelson, DOT Northern Region Chief Planner. “We can renew the lease, but if we don’t own it, do we want to invest in it?”
Nelson says when agency launched the study two years ago, other pilots expressed reservations about the Healy River Airport.
“We started getting questions from local pilots on weather conditions and terrain difficulties at that airport,” he said. “So then that kind of made us look at other areas – is there another viable options?”
Another problem with the airport is that it’s hemmed-in by properties and the area’s topography.
“It’s a little bit land-locked, so it’s not easily expandable, So if we were to keep this airport going into the future, it would be the same size,” he said. “All the lease lots are occupied. There’s no more lease lots available and we don’t have room to expand or lengthen the runways, because of the properties and the terrain.”
All of which led DOT officials and others to wonder whether in the long run the project funding from the Federal Aviation Administration, or FAA, would be better invested in one of the other airports. Those include the one near the community of Lake Minchumina, located just outside the borough boundary.
“So if we have kind of a questionable lease, we didn’t really want to take more money from FAA and be on the hook for investing in an airport that may not be the best option,” Nelson said. “When you take federal funding from FAA, you’re under obligation for like 20 years to maintain the airport.”
Despite those issues, DOT would likely select the Healy River airport for the upgrade if there’s strong public support for it over the next few months. Nelson says DOT plans to wrap up the study by early next year. Today’s meetings will give the public and pilots a chance to hear all the information that’s been gathered so far.
“That’s kind of what’s going to be addressed at the public meetings on Thursday. Do we want to stay with this airport property and reinvest in it? Or do we need to look at other existing airports? Or do we need to build a new airport?”
The first meeting will be a virtual online event that starts at noon. The second in-person meeting will begin at 5 p.m at the Tri-Valley Community Center in Healy. More information is available on the DOT website, on the Denali Airport Study page. We’ll have links to that page in the online version of this story at fm.KUAC.org.
