The Kenai City Council is going ahead with funding a new bike path along Bridge Access Road, but not without some trepidation.
The project would connect the new bike path along Beaver Loop Road to the existing Unity Path route through the City of Kenai by creating a separated path along Bridge Access Road. Most of it will be paid for by a federal passthrough grant, with a 9 percent match from the city. The city council has no problem with the project; the problem is the cost.
Earlier this year, the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities changed its policy on how it handles these grants, called Alaska Transportation Alternative Program grants. Before, the DOT allowed municipalities to design and construct the projects in house, just receiving and passing the money along. Now, the state DOT wants to handle the entire project itself. Since that decision, the original cost estimate for Kenai’s project has more than doubled and has climbed to $2.1 million for about a little over a mile of paved path.
The Kenai council did pass the ordinance appropriating the approximately $216,000 to provide the match. But they also asked city manager Paul Ostrander to keep negotiating with DOT to see if the city could be allowed to design and construct the project.
Council member Henry Knackstedt says the city should be able to manage a project it’ll have to maintain long-term.
"We’re going to be maintaining it," Knackstedt said. "It’s going to be our facility. Number two, I think the city’s in a better position to protect us in cost control. At least we know what the state… I don’t know where the state is going to take the design once they start it. And I would prefer to have that under our roof. And I think we do a perfectly good job. Designing a bike path really isn’t rocket science."
Council member Jim Glendening ultimately voted against the ordinance after a debate about postponement and an amendment that offered Ostrander more flexibility to negotiate, saying he didn’t like offering support for something without a concrete plan.
"We are giving the city manager discretion, and I think we knows full well the concerns that we have regarding cost management—agreeing to an agreement we haven’t seen, and no handle on the costs," Glendening said.
The main concern is if the DOT revises the cost estimate again and the city’s on the hook for more money. City finance manager Terry Eubank says once the council signs on, they’ll be on the hook to pay for the match, regardless of whether the cost goes up or down.
"My understanding from my discussions with DOT is we are absolutely taking a risk, and we’ll be on the hook for whatever percentage required, percentage match of what the costs are," Eubank said. "If costs go beyond the current estimate, they will be coming to us asking for additional match. If the costs come in below the estimate, we will not have to pay as much, or we’ll get money refunded to us."
Ostrander says he can’t imagine the price going up any more for the project.
"We’re talking about a bike path that right now, with their cost, is $378 per foot," he said. "If you built the Unity Trail at that cost, it would cost $40 million to build the Unity Trail. I cannot imagine that this is going to go above that. It’s just unfathomable that this is going to cost more than $2.1 million."
The matching funds come from the Daubenspeck family fund, which was donated to the city for use on recreation and sports facilities. Mayor Brian Gabriel thanked the family for their donation and suggested the council place a plaque alongside the path to acknowledge the funding.
Kenai’s project would be the third newly paved path in the Kenai area—the Beaver Loop Road path was just finished, and the contractor on the Kenai Spur Highway widening project also recently finished repaving the Unity Path between Eagle Rock boat launch and Swires Road.
Reach Elizabeth Earl at eearl@kdll.org.
