Comment EI-16344
Received or sent (printed as 1/29/2009)
This is in reference to STB Finance docket No. 34658 regarding the proposed construction of a rail line between North Pole, Alaska, and Delta Junction, Alaska. For starters, it was absolutely a ludicrous statement to put in this document that it would be a criminal act to cross this rail ROW at a non-designated vehicle or pedestrian crossing point. The ROW between thest two points will be crossed by ATV's and snowmachines, at non-designated points, thousands of times a month, especially in the winter. One existing trail that gets used extensively in the Fall and especially in the winter, is the Blair Lakes trail, near Flag Hill. There must be a crossing installed at that location. Another concern that I have is the use of the bridge on the North Pole/Salcha end of the line. I understand that it will have both a road and rail crossing. If history is any indicator, hunters and others will find a way to use that road/rail crossing, especially in the fall. Those crossings will be a half mile to a mile long, depending on the option chosen, and if ATV's are able to drive on the rail bridges I fear there will be many fatalaties at that crossing. In addition to the above issues, regardless of the mitigation issues being proposed, I estimate that there will be 300-500 moose killed per year on that section of track. I believe the moose kill in this section will far exceed the worse kill ever recorded on the 400 mile section of track between Fairbanks and Anchorage. In fact, I believe the kill by the railroad will match or exceed what hunters take from that Game Management Unit every year. That piece of track runs perpendicular to a major moose migration route, it's entire length. Twice a year, in the Spring and again in the Fall, there are thousands of moose crossings as the moose migrate to the hills in the north in the winter, and to the Tanana Flats, to calve, in the summer. I have observed moose behavior on railroad tracks and all of my experiences have noted that moose do not move off the tracks, onto a cleared area, but instead run in front of the train for some distance, until tired, then turn around and face the train, until struck. I have sent these same comments to the Fairbanks Fish and Game Advisory Committee, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, and the Alaska Department of Natural Resources.
Submitted by: Larry Dalrymple · Fairbanks, Alaska
The Board publishes this comment in its environmental-comment table for this proceeding. It is quoted here as printed; nothing is inferred from it, and it states the commenter's own position in their own words, not this record's.
Permanent address docketyard.org/d/FD-34658/comment/EI-16344 · back to the docket sheet