The New Northern Access Road

In 1996, Public Law 104-134 ordered the National Park Service (NPS) to conduct a study, in cooperation with the state of Alaska to determine the feasibility of constructing a new north access route into Denali National Park and Preserve. Currently, there is only one access route into the park. The NPS limited their feasibility study to two transportation modes: road and rail.

If a road were built, it would probably encompass the 80-mile route along the Stampede Corridor, running from the George Parks Highway in the Healy area to the Moose Creek Bridge in the Kantishna/Wonder Lake area. This route would create a transportation loop between the park’s front country and the Wonder Lake area.

Construction of the road will create negative externalities. Several "third-party" effects will not be accounted for by the prices of construction, maintenance, research, etc. The exhaust fumes and noise pollution from the buses and cars will drive away wildlife by encroaching on their natural habitat. Both construction and the harmful vehicle emissions will contaminate the soil. This could prove hazardous to plant species in the area.

The study also considered a 65-mile long road that also begins in the Healy region, but ends at Myrtle Pass. This road only extends ¾ of the distance to Wonder Lake, and would not provide the additional, potentially year-round, access to Kantishna landowners and businesses that the 80-mile loop would. The same market failures would exist on this road, and also on the potential 80-95 mile railroad, which would traverse the same route as the 80-mile road.