CITY OF PALMER
231 West Evergreen Avenue • Palmer, Alaska 99645
PHONE (907) 745-3271
FAX (907) 745-0930
TESTIMONY BY CITY OF PALMER
BEFORE THE
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS
April 14, 2003
Thank you, Madam Chair and Committee Members,
for providing this opportunity for testimony on transportation infrastructure
needs in Alaska. On behalf of the City of Palmer, I welcome you to our
community and hope this hearing and your time in our community is fruitful and
informative.
The City of Palmer is not a large community,
but it is representative of so many communities in the United States that are
experiencing growth and trying to meet the challenges of building and improving
local transportation infrastructure. Palmer has the highest population density
of mid-sized Alaska cities by a factor of two. Palmer is experiencing an annual
growth rate of seven percent, and the capacity of our transportation
infrastructure is not keeping up with that growth.
Palmer is served by the Glenn Highway from
the north and south, the Old Glenn Highway from the east, and the
Palmer-Wasilla Highway from the west. The Glenn Highway, a federal interstate
highway, passes directly
through Palmer. All of these roads, including
local Palmer city streets, have experienced tremendous increases in usage in
recent years, and all of these roads are in need of capacity and safety
improvements.
Traffic on the Glenn Highway south of Palmer
has increased one hundred percent in ten years and has reached levels that
suggest it be improved from its present two lanes to four lanes. Traffic on the
Palmer-Wasilla Highway has increased fifty percent in ten years, creating the
need for either a major capacity improvement or construction of another
parallel route.
The need for these projects has been
identified for some time. These projects and many others are listed in the
State of Alaska's Statewide Transportation Improvement Program, or STIR Yet
years pass, traffic and congestion increases, and these projects are bumped
back again and again in the STIP schedule, often due to an overall level of
funding that is not sufficient to address transportation needs on a timely
basis. We believe that the current level of federal highway funding is not
adequate to meet the growing, and increasingly deferred transportation needs of
our area.
As we plan for improvements to the Glenn
Highway through Palmer, a federal interstate highway, there is a compelling
need to design those improvements so they enhance, rather than divide our
community. Also, the Glenn Highway has recently been designated as a National
Scenic Byway. Because of this designation and to recognize the needs of our
community, the City of Palmer, in cooperation with the State of Alaska, hopes
to develop an urban boulevard design for the Glenn Highway through Palmer. This
approach will combine pedestrian facilities and landscape improvements
with roadway capacity improvements so this project fits into our community.
In regards to local roads, Palmer has had
several local projects listed in the STIR The City has worked with the Alaska
Department of Transportation and Public Facilities to construct some of these
projects. Our success in some of these projects has been due to a high level of
local participation. The City believes some local projects can be done on a
more timely, cost effective and efficient basis if project funds are
transferred to the local municipality through a memorandum of agreement.
There are other important transportation
elements that deserve continued attention and funding. The City of Palmer is
involved in a project funded through a Federal Highway Administration
Transportation and Community and System Preservation (TCSP) program grant to
improve the Alaska Railroad right-of-way through Palmer. This Urban
Revitalization project, made possible by a partnership of state and federal
agencies and the Alaska Railroad, will construct pedestrian and bicycle
pathways, parking areas, and other improvements to enhance alternate means of
local transportation in our community. This is also a project which will be an
important part of an area-wide system of trails connecting Sutton to the north,
the Butte and Knik River areas to the east, and Wasilla and Big Lake to the
west. To the south, the project will connect to a new park-and-ride facility
soon to be constructed at the Alaska State Fair in Palmer using Federal Transit
Administration funds.
In summary, we stress the need for continued
and increased levels of federal funding for transportation improvements in
Alaska, and for the continuation of programs that allow close coordination of
transportation improvement planning with the needs of local communities.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today, and thank
you again for convening this hearing in our community.
Jim Cooper,
Mayor,
City of Palmer,
Alaska