On a wind-battered, uninhabited island sandwiched between the Bering Sea and the Pacific Ocean, a $77 million airport project is taking shape. To get to or from the airport, forget about taking a shuttle bus or an underground train. At this remote outpost, helicopters and hovercrafts connect you to your flight.
Alaska is known for its largesse. Congressional representatives like Rep. Don Young and the late Sen. Ted Stevens earned a reputation for funneling cash into state coffers, often as a way to modernize small communities located off the road system, connecting them by sea or air to the rest of the world.
The most famous -- or infamous -- of these was the so-called “bridge to nowhere,” a $398 million project that would have connected another island runway to the city it served, eliminating the need to rely on a ferry to move people on and off the island. Killed off by a hostile political climate unwilling to bankroll what was perceived as porkbarrel spending, the plans for the Southeast bridge continue to collect dust.
The most famous -- or infamous -- of these was the so-called “bridge to nowhere,” a $398 million project that would have connected another island runway to the city it served, eliminating the need to rely on a ferry to move people on and off the island. Killed off by a hostile political climate unwilling to bankroll what was perceived as porkbarrel spending, the plans for the Southeast bridge continue to collect dust.
Years later, plans to build an airport for a smaller, even more isolated community in another part of the state demonstrate again the measures sometimes required to move Alaskans from one place to another. Though only a fraction of the cost of the “bridge to nowhere,” a new airport for the remote city of Akutan is in the works. Already, there’s a snag.
By next winter the small village in Alaska’s Aleutian Island chain will have a new runway, long enough to handle planes carrying nearly 40 passengers. But the community won’t have easy access to the $64 million airport. The runway itself won’t be on the same island as the village, but six miles away across a windswept and turbulent strait fed in part by the notoriously rough Bering Sea.
And therein lies the problem: figuring out how residents and seasonal workers will get to the airport. A $13 million plan for a hovercraft to shuttle passengers from the airstrip to the community and back may not work, leaving local leaders in search of a solution. Now, they may need a helicopter. If they don’t find a fix by next summer, they could have a $64 million airstrip in the middle of nowhere.
Two islands, an airport, and a hovercraft
Akutan, Alaska is a small village located on the eastern end of its namesake island with a population of fewer than a hundred year-round residents. In the summer months, the population spikes to more than 1,000, as seasonal employees roll in to work and live at the Trident Seafoods processing plant -- the largest such plant in North America. And by the end of 2012, Akutan hopes to boast a new 4,500-foot-long airport runway.
Well, sort of.
That runway is actually being built six miles across open sea to the east of the city of Akutan, on Akun Island, an uninhabited piece of land home only to rolling tundra and a number of wild cows.
The only way in or out of Akutan via air is by way of a seaplane base that serves the city and Trident employees shuttling to and from work during peak months. The waves and winds are too much for most planes, though. The planes that service the community generally don’t have the range to travel all the way from Anchorage, but operate from the airport in Dutch Harbor. There has been some success with De Havilland Otters and Cessna Caravans, but the only plane that sticks around is the Grumman Goose, an amphibious World War II-era aircraft -- often 70 or 80 years old now. Two of them are operated by Peninsula Airways.
Two islands, an airport, and a hovercraft
Akutan, Alaska is a small village located on the eastern end of its namesake island with a population of fewer than a hundred year-round residents. In the summer months, the population spikes to more than 1,000, as seasonal employees roll in to work and live at the Trident Seafoods processing plant -- the largest such plant in North America. And by the end of 2012, Akutan hopes to boast a new 4,500-foot-long airport runway.
Well, sort of.
That runway is actually being built six miles across open sea to the east of the city of Akutan, on Akun Island, an uninhabited piece of land home only to rolling tundra and a number of wild cows.
The only way in or out of Akutan via air is by way of a seaplane base that serves the city and Trident employees shuttling to and from work during peak months. The waves and winds are too much for most planes, though. The planes that service the community generally don’t have the range to travel all the way from Anchorage, but operate from the airport in Dutch Harbor. There has been some success with De Havilland Otters and Cessna Caravans, but the only plane that sticks around is the Grumman Goose, an amphibious World War II-era aircraft -- often 70 or 80 years old now. Two of them are operated by Peninsula Airways.
Not only are those Grumman Geese getting old. They aren’t even manufactured anymore. And according to Brian Carricaburu, vice president and director of operations for PenAir, it’s getting harder and harder to maintain them.
“The Grummans are going away,” he said, “so it’s very difficult to keep them flying.”
Hence the need for the new aiport. But between the city of Akutan, the community being serviced by the airport, and Akun Island, where the runway will eventually reside, sits the Akun Strait. So how will travelers get from their landing point at the airport to the city of Akutan or the Trident processing plant?
Enter the hovercraft.
Read More: http://www.alaskadispatch.com
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