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June 2014

Vol. 19, No. 25 Week of June 22, 2014

BIA funding Colville road for Nuiqsut

The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs is funding a 3.75-mile single-lane gravel road for the Native Village of Nuiqsut. In a June 9 public notice of a permit application the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said the road would run from the end of Nuiqsut’s existing Fresh Water Lake Access Road to the north bank of the main channel of the Colville River.

The Corps said the Native Village of Nuiqsut is the applicant for the work, the purpose of which is to “enhance the transportation of materials needed for subsistence hunting and fishing including return of harvest.”

Batteries of four corrugated metal pipe culverts would be installed at the three fish stream crossings and the road would include turnouts to accommodate vehicles meeting each other on the road. The road would end in a turnaround with a 100-foot radius and a slope to accommodate vehicles and trailers to drive through the turnaround to launch water craft to accommodate subsistence activities, the Corps said.

The proposal does not include a boat ramp or other river access improvements.

The Corp’s Project Management Division received funding from the applicant to design, contract and construct the access road.

Fill material would come from the Arctic Slope Regional Corp. mine site across the Colville River and by transported by ice road during the winter.

The Corps said it authorized a similar project design for the Colville Access Road in 1996, but no portion of that permitted roadway was ever constructed.

Mitigation measures proposed by the Native Village of Nuiqsut include avoidance of wetlands where possible by selection of the highest topography for the road; minimization of the quantity of fill; and compensatory mitigation with an in-lieu fee or land preservation.

A 2013 design report by the Corps’ Alaska Hydraulics Hydrology Section said the majority of traffic on the road is expected to be a mix of all terrain vehicles and passenger vehicles, with a small amount of truck traffic in support of construction projects.

The Corps said construction would occur in winter.

Comments on the project are due by July 10.

- Kristen Nelson






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