The Daily Alaska empire., 1930-04-26
BRIDGE ACROSS
 CHANNEL IS ON
 ROAD PROGRAM
Approval ot Secretary of Agriculture to Big
 Bridge Formally Given

With the approaching consumma- ton of negotiations for pulptirn- Der sales in this district and the promised establishment of pulp and paper mills, the long discussed pro- ject for building a bridge across Gastineau Channel connecting Douglas and Juneau, looms as a reality. This is revealed in the Revised Forest Highway System in Alaska, as approved early this year by the Secretary of Agriculture.
 There is how under consideration by Congress a measure increasing the National Forest Highway Fund for the next fiscal year in the sum of $5.000,0o0, from which Alaska will benefit materially. If pulp and paper development here pro- gresses as is now indicated, and this measure is passed by Congress, it is indicated that the Forest and Service and United State Bureau of Public Roads will be ready to go ahead with the bridge project.
 Nor is the expansion of the road program limited to the construc- ton of the bridge. Tn addition, there is a 10-mile road approved extending from the town of Doug las to the north end of Douglas Island, and, also, reconstruction of the Thane road to highway stand ard.
 This is revealed by letter from the Department of Agriculture to the Territorial Road Commission. under date of February ', last.
 Tn this the bridge and road proj- ect, listed as Project No, 3l, of the Approved Forest Highway sys- tenn in Alaska, is described. Tffe project was submitted to the Sec retary of Agriculture in 1929, and recommended for approval by c. H. Flory, United States District For ester, and M. D. Williams, United States District Engineer, United States Bureau of Public Roads.
 They wrote as follows:
 "A number of years ago the Alaska Road Commission construct ed section of road leading north from the town limits of Douglas for a distance of approximately two miles. The Territorial Board of Road Commissioners has now re- quested that maintenance of this section be taken over by the Bureau of Public Roads.
 "It is, therefore. recommended that new route be approved which will include not only the two miles of the constructed road but will also provide for the future extension of the road to Fritz Cove at the north end of Douglas Island. and for the location of a bridge from the town of Juneau across Gastineau Channel to Douglas Island. The construction of bridge across Gatsineau Channel will con- meet the Glacier Highway system and street system of Juneau with the road and street system of Douglas"
 The extension north from Doug las of the road will open up for development and settlement con- siderable acreage of land both with in and adjacent to the National Forest domain. A number of tracts outside of the forest borders have already been settled on, and are being developed.
 The Thane road is already an existing project on which mainten- ance is annually done. With the establishment of pulp mills, the advancement of this project to a standard highway status is as- sured
 Local officials of the Forest Serv- ice and Bureau of Public Roads today said they had no comment to make on these projects. The approval of the Secretary of Agri- culture, they said. was matter of public record and needed no -amplifaction, nor were they in position to go further than the record showed. They had no hesi- tancy, however. in saying that the bridge, Douglas road and Thane road projects had long been under consideration by both the bureaus interested and that arrangements for financing the work had been worked out. |