A new bike path is coming to Eagle River Road!
Thank you to everyone who attended AMATS meetings and sent in public comments. This is how trails happen!
A bit of background:
Chugiak-Eagle River and the Anchorage Bowl are lumped together for federally-funded transportation projects under AMATS, Anchorage Metropolitan Area Transportation Solutions. In order to qualify for funding, our roads and adjacent pathways are nominated by the public, and then scored, ranked and listed in the MTP, the 20-year Metropolitan Transportation Plan. Unfortunately, this scoring criteria doesn’t look at geographical equity, so we’re stuck with a plan where 99 out of 100 nonmotorized pathway projects are proposed for the Anchorage Bowl, leaving Chugiak-Eagle River underfunded.
Luckily, AMATS has a system where the public is encouraged to participate and help balance regional investment. The Policy Committee includes representatives from the State of Alaska and the Municipality of Anchorage. This committee approves which projects from the MTP that are funded for the next four years in what is called the TIP, Transportation Improvement Program.
TIP funding is updated frequently, and projects can be added or removed. In this last amendment, tens of millions of dollars of funding for Eagle River Road was shifted to Anchorage Bowl projects. Because of the massive amount of comments in support of Chugiak-Eagle River, the Policy Committee voted to keep funding for the nonmotorized part of the larger road project.
CMBR will continue to advocate for our trails and pathways. Please consider donating today!