An open letter to users of Sterling Highway:
It is time to prevent more deaths at Cooper Landing. Join me in writing our Federal delegation.
Here is my letter.
Senator,
The US Forest Service and The Federal Highway Department is morally responsible for the death of a 15-year-old child in Cooper Landing Thursday.
The Cooper Landing bypass has been the longest running environmental study in history of the United States.
The Forest Service has steadfastly refused to allow the road to be relocated away from the area of the child’s death.
In fact their work cabin property located at Mile 45 Sterling Highway caused the right of way to narrow and did not allow the shoulders to be widened.
From Sunrise Lodge to Wildman’s the state widened the center stripe and edge stripes and has guardrails that are directly above the sidelines. Their design has resulted in four truck accidents and this girl’s death.
The 1952 Seward Highway and the Sterling Highway were created by the Alaska Road Commission and have remained the same in Cooper Landing despite spending millions of dollars in environmental studies.
The trucking companies now run double tandem trucks 100 feet long on this road, a reality not imagined by the 1952 design team.
It literally takes an act of Congress to reroute this road in a National Forest. It is time to have Congress grant a right away bypassing this choke point.
I would like you to write, support and pass such an act.