State puts Anchorage’s Fish Creek trail extension on hold after Marathon Petroleum objects to route

In an unusual move, Alaska’s Department of Transportation recently halted work on a long-awaited Anchorage trail connection project after Marathon Petroleum objected to the proposed route.

The project aims to connect the Spenard-area Fish Creek Trail to the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail, in an area of West Anchorage that lacks walking and biking infrastructure.

The project team chose the most feasible trail connection route, also called the “preferred alternative,” which would run almost entirely through the Alaska Railroad’s easement — an area where Marathon’s Tesoro Alaska Pipeline is also located. The pipeline runs 70 miles from the Kenai refinery to the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport and the Don Young Port of Alaska, delivering gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.

The project’s preferred route avoids the protected Fish Creek Estuary and is estimated to cost millions of dollars less than other options studied.

But last week, an official with AMATS, the Anchorage-area transportation planning organization for the municipality and state, revealed during an advisory committee meeting that the state had suddenly stopped work on the project, prompting outcry from elected officials and residents who have long advocated for the project.

“The entire room was shocked to hear of the project’s disruption, because it appears to have sidestepped the public process entirely,” said Alexa Dobson, executive director of Bike Anchorage, in a letter to DOT leaders calling for answers.

At that meeting, representatives for Marathon presented a slideshow to the committee, outlining their concerns and pushing for the project team to consider a different route, referencing one that has been estimated to cost tens of millions of dollars more.

“At this time, (the department) has paused most activities on the project to evaluate potentially significant objections” from Marathon, DOT administrative operations manager Justin Shelby said in a statement to the Daily News. He did not say exactly when the pause was enacted.

The trail would pave over the pipeline in areas, increasing the depth and making maintenance more difficult, Evan Bencic, right of way supervisor with Marathon, told the AMATS advisory committee. The company is most concerned about an above-ground block valve and increased public exposure with the trail route right next to it.

“There’s some serious concerns with, you know, hundreds of people walking by our fence every single day, seeing that critical infrastructure, seeing that valve. So there are some genuine safety concerns that we have. There’s also some cost burdens,” Bencic said.

The oil company’s concerns have been met with skepticism by advocates. In a presentation immediately after Marathon’s, Anchorage’s Parks and Recreation Department director, Mike Braniff, showed photos of numerous areas of pipeline already apparent to the public, including where the line runs along West Northern Lights Boulevard and below the tarmac at the Ted Stevens airport. A section of pipeline is exposed in Fish Creek, and another block valve facility is directly adjacent to the Coastal Trail.

Braniff acknowledged that the project would add some “new maintenance challenges” for Marathon, but pointed to Marathon’s “proven track record” with successfully managing its facilities throughout Anchorage.

That “demonstrates that this initiative is consistent with standard operations. It presents minimal infrastructure concerns,” Braniff said.

State Rep. Zack Fields, D-Anchorage, in a newsletter to constituents, called the state transportation department’s pause on the project “outrageous” and said the move appears to be “unprecedented political interference in an essential regional transportation project.”

“If we allow it to be delayed for an alternative that is not viable, then that, in fact, kills the project,” Fields said during a Turnagain Community Council meeting last week.

In a Tuesday email, transportation department spokeswoman Shannon McCarthy said that the department is required to work with utilities as a part of project development, and described the state’s action as not a “pause” but “a refocus of the project team on the conflict with Marathon pipeline to see if we can mitigate their concerns or make an accommodation that would work for them.”

“Because this is a major utility and would be quite expensive to relocate, (fuel, high pressure etc.) and because any disruption would have significant economic implications, it makes more sense, and may be less costly, to deal with this issue right now before we advance the project further,” McCarthy said.

Assembly Vice Chair Meg Zaletel is one of two Assembly members representing the city on the AMATS Policy Committee, which has voting powers. They hadn’t been briefed by the state, and have called for an explanation during an upcoming Dec. 19 meeting. “We do not think that DOT can take unilateral action,” she said.

A history of opposition

While the project has faced opposition from a few property owners that would be affected by the route, it had appeared to be on track.

Anchorage resident J.L. McCarrey owns a property with a driveway that the north end of the trail route would cross. Last year, he attempted to block the trail route by acquiring a lease from the railroad, but the railroad added a clause to the lease preserving the chance for the trail extension.

A few other landowners have backyards that encroach into the railroad’s right-of-way — yards which would be essentially slashed by the project. John Haxby owns two such properties, and claims that the railroad has only an easement through his land, though city property records show the railroad holds most of the land Haxby has fenced.

“It’s going to destroy the value of my property, 100%,” Haxby said during the meeting last week.

Former and incoming state Rep. Chuck Kopp, R-Anchorage, and Cherie Curry, co-founders of consulting firm WinFluence Strategies, in July told the Old Seward/Oceanview Community Council that they were working with the governor’s office, DOT, and Marathon Oil, “who strongly object to the railroad using the easement for anything other than rail, telegraph and telephone,” according to the council minutes.

The trail project “involves eviscerating people’s backyards, fences, decks, physically relocating significant portions of their property to allow for it,” Kopp said in a September interview.

Curry said Winfluence had worked with clients opposing the project to get staff members from the governor’s office and DOT Commissioner Ryan Anderson out for a tour of the properties to see what would happen to backyards such as Haxby’s. Winfluence has represented McCarrey in correspondence with the municipal attorney over the land rights dispute.

A public safety risk or ‘spurious concerns’?

In an Oct. 31 letter to the railroad, Richard Mousley, senior right of way specialist with Marathon, said the trail as proposed would unreasonably interfere with its property rights and permitted use of the area; increase “operational complexity and costs” and “create new safety risk for our employees and the public.”

In public statements, representatives have emphasized that the company is not opposed to the project as a whole, but only to the current preferred route.

Increased traffic from the trail “significantly increases the threat of vandalism to MPL assets and risks public safety and extended shutdown of a pipeline which would gravely impact energy accessibility for the State of Alaska,” Mousley said in the letter.

The railroad’s vice president of engineering and chief engineer, Brian Lindamood, responded in a letter dated Nov. 27 and refuted Marathon’s claim to having property rights in the railroad right-of-way, other than to the pipeline.

“If Marathon has a strong opinion regarding the proposed route selection, those comments need to be addressed to ADOT and the Muni. If, after good-faith efforts to work with ADOT and the Muni, there remain legitimate concerns related to your permitted facilities that remain unresolved, we will work with Marathon and the Project developers to determine if these concerns can be mitigated,” Lindamood said.

Like city Parks and Recreation Director Braniff, Lindamood noted that the pipeline is close to public park facilities in other locations.

Graham Downey, special assistant to Mayor Suzanne LaFrance, said the municipality is working with the state, railroad and Marathon to try and address the concerns.

“We’ve been hearing from a lot of advocates. We’ve been hearing from the property owners. We’ve got a meeting with the railroad next week. So for our sake, as the municipality, we’re really in this fact-finding mode right now... we are continuing to try to understand the concerns and figure out how and if we resolve them,” Downey said in an interview.

Anchorage communities have pushed for the trail connection for years, and variations of it have been in transportation planning documents since the late ‘90s. The Fish Creek Trail Connection project is funded in a 91% to 9% split of federal and local dollars, and in 2021, 2022 and 2023 Anchorage voters approved parks bonds that include money for the project.

It’s a local project, but it is being managed by the DOT and its contractor, in coordination with the city Parks and Recreation Department and AMATS.

Advocates say the trail connection would help ease safety concerns for pedestrians, bicyclists and other non-motorized transportation, in an area where residential neighborhoods and schools about busy, high-speed corridors like Minnesota Drive and Northern Lights Boulevard.

For the project to move forward under the current timeline, the railroad’s board of directors would first need to approve the design plan in a vote sometime late next year. Construction is slated for 2026. The city plans to put out another bond in 2025 to fulfill its 9% portion, according to Braniff’s presentation.

“It looks to me like a tiny handful of people who don’t want a trail behind their property, are trying to kill the project by bringing up spurious concerns about a gas pipeline, which, frankly, runs through many neighborhoods and is proximate to many other transportation corridors,” Fields said.

Daily News reporter Sean Maguire contributed to this report.