The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Sept. 16 that construction could continue on the first 2.8 miles of a road that would cross the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge.
The controversial 19-mile mile road would connect the community of King Cove, on the Alaska Peninsula, to Cold Bay’s all-weather airport.
In August, a federal judge voided a pivotal 2025 land exchange between the federal government and the King Cove Native Corporation that allowed for the road’s construction.
However, the first 2.8 miles of the road sits outside the refuge, on land owned by the King Cove Corporation. The Ninth Circuit’s ruling denied a motion filed by environmental group Defenders of Wildlife to halt construction on that part of the road.
King Cove City Administrator Gary Hennigh said there’s currently a construction crew of around 30 people working on-site.
“They're having breakfast at 7 o'clock in the morning, they eat on site, and then they're back in town to have dinner at the bingo hall between 7 and 8 o'clock at night,” he said.
Hennigh said the crew is spending most of its time making gravel – mining rock from two quarry sites and crushing it into material for the base of the road.
“The first couple hundred feet of the road, they have laid some gravel down on top of the matting you put below it,” he said.
About one-third of the workforce is local residents, according to Hennigh. Those with commercial driver’s licenses are driving some of the trucks and equipment, while others are flagging and guarding from bears.
He said the community is happy that construction is moving forward. They expect to complete the first 2.6 miles of the road before the end of the year.
He added that the King Cove Corporation, along with the U.S. Department of the Interior and state of Alaska, plans to appeal the August land exchange ruling this fall.
