By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
The 34-day public comment period on Phase II of the Sitka Seawalk, which began Nov. 30, will end Wednesday.
The project, with 90 percent federal and state funding, calls for building an eight-foot wide sidewalk between the end of Seawalk Phase I and Totem Square on Lincoln Street.
Phase II starts in front of the Sitka Public Library and runs along the outside of the rock abutment of the O’Connell Bridge to the lightering dock under the bridge.
The existing section of the seawalk, which was completed in 2013, extends from Harrigan Centennial Hall to the border of Sitka National Historical Park. Now known as Phase I, that project was primarily a widening of the sidewalk through Crescent Harbor Park and construction of an elevated 8-foot wide boardwalk near the end at the national park.
On Nov. 30 representatives of the multi-agency local, state and federal Seawalk Phase II project team, along with the design, landscaping and engineering consultants, unveiled their 35 percent-complete plans for Seawalk Phase II at a “scoping meeting” for the public at Centennial Hall. The stated goal of the project is to “guide visitor and resident pedestrian traffic through the community and provide expanded recreation opportunities,”
A 30-day public comment period started Nov. 30, but was extended four days because of a mistake in the public notice of the comment period.
The public service announcement about the extension said “... as required under the NEPA process, the word ‘alternative’ is being replaced within the project materials using the terminology Routes 3a and 3b to allow public input for the two options considered for Section 3 under O’Connell Bridge.”
The estimated cost of the three-part extension of the Seawalk is $5.4 million, with most funded by federal sources, and a 9 percent match from the city and the state Department of Transportation. The city’s portion is to be covered by the commercial passenger excise tax.
Planning for Phase II – from the library to Totem Square – started in 2021.
Section 1 of the preliminary design for the $5.4 million project calls for a new 8-foot wide sidewalk extending toward the bridge from the library. The additional width will be provided by paving the area of decorative gravel along the side of the library. The Harbor Drive crosswalk at Maksoutoff Street will be relocated. Underground utilities farther toward the bridge will require the extra width of the sidewalk to be taken from the highway right-of-way, eliminating four on-street parking spaces.
Plans for Section 2, which will be built first, call for a rock build-out from the existing rock embankment of the bridge abutment. As presently planned, the resulting 19-foot wide bench would have a paved walkway, four overlooks, security “dark skies” lighting, a landscaped edge and no guardrail.
Section 3 is still open for final design and the planners said feedback was being invited on the options. The preliminary plan, “Route 3a,” calls for a couple of 90-degree turns in the walkway over the open space under the bridge. The newly designated “Route 3b” option would loop the walkway around the water side of the open space under the bridge and the adjacent parking lot and connect with the existing sidewalk leading toward the Cable House.
Planners said public feedback was also sought on the best place to cross Lincoln Street to Totem Square.
Before the 35 percent plans were presented to the public the planners considered three options for Section 2 the portion that runs around the bridge abutment. They chose the rock fill over ones calling for an 18-foot wide boardwalk, or a similar elevated structure called a soldier pile wall.
Team project manager Tyler Bradshaw of PND Engineers said at the Nov. 30 public meeting that planners determined in scoping documents in 2019 and 2020 that “fill was the most likely the most cost effective.” Primary funding for the project comes from the Federal Lands Access Program (FLAP) and the Alaska Transportation alternatives Plan (ATAP). Bradshaw said there is still a funding shortfall for the whole project, and project planners are pursuing additional federal funds that they believe are available to complete the project.
“And that’s the process we’re going through right now,” Bradshaw said.
The city plans to apply for the additional federal trail funds needed to complete the project, but the Assembly must first approve the application, Public Works Director Michael Harmon said today.
The seawalk, in the preferred alternative for Section 2, is 8 feet wide, 10 feet below the roadway, 10 feet above the water at high tide, with a 7-foot landscape shoulder, making the entire shoulder 19 feet wide.
The items discussed at the Nov. 30 meeting included:
– the loss of four on-street parking spaces.
– the rock fill impact on eelgrass at the base of the bridge abutment.
– preferences for Section 3 under the bridge to Lincoln Street
– surface alternatives for section 2, which may be funding dependent.
– colored concrete instead of the “hightide” paver pattern of Phase I.
– dark-skies-compliant, low-glare lighting.
The next public meeting is expected in the spring on the 75 percent design concept.
The project can be seen and comments made at cityofsitka.com/sitkaseawalkphaseII, or by emailing Department of Transportation project manager Loren Gehring, loren.gehring@alaska.gov <loren.gehring@alaska.gov>.
