Engineering group provides update on Tetlin-Fort Knox corridor plan | localnews
Surrounded by a crowd of residents, the Tetlin to Fort Knox Corridor technical advisory committee met Thursday for the first time since October to discuss updates on a corridor analysis of three Interior highways.
The Alaska Department of Transportation launched the independent advisory committee and corresponding corridor analysis initially to address concerns over Kinross Alaska’s plan to haul gold ore from Manh Choh Gold Mine near Tetlin 247 miles to Fort Knox. Kinross plans to start mining and hauling operations in summer or fall of 2024.
Large double-trailer trucks will haul gold ore each way 24 hours a day on 240 miles of public highways, including the Alaska, Richardson and Steese Highways. Operations are expected to last four to five years. The Manh Choh mine is a joint venture between Kinross and Contango Ore. The mine will produce what Kinross said amounts to some of the highest grade gold in Alaska, and will process it at the Fort Knox mill located approximately 25 miles northeast of Fairbanks.
Kinney Engineering, the firm selected by DOT, will conduct the analysis and examine both short- and long-term impacts and solutions for the corridor. “The last time we met with the committee, we got buy-in about the scope of work,” said Randy Kinney, Kinney Engineering’s founder.
The project will be split into two phases. The first phase examines the five and 10 year conditions, while the second phase looks at a long-range plan and 20 year conditions.
“We are going to consider current conditions in a five and 10-year time frame,” Kinney said. “That more or less coincides with the Manh Choh Mine hauling period.”
The first phase will evaluate the corridor uses, safety and existing operations without the planned trucking hauls. Kinney Engineering will then factor in the ore haul operations into existing conditions and determine the significance and whether mitigations are warranted.
“We’re looking at safety, at environmental, and operations and trying to address it in our study,” Kinney said. “We’re going to be looking at different agencies and interests affected along the corridor.”
The engineering firm started existing conditions prior to the corridor analysis project, including 10 years worth of crash and vehicle frequency data, travel demand and forecasts.
Kinney said the corridor analysis will include public involvement, including a set of public hearings at times to be determined.
“We’ve got an analysis task that takes the data and tries to simplify it to determine safety qualities,” Kinney said.
A report will be published by the end of the summer.
“We wanted to do this phase first because we can get it done in advance of the Kinross ore haul operations,” Kinney said. “It’s a very compressed timeline because a project like this would take at least a year. We’re evaluating 250 miles of roads through four communities.”
Motor vehicle rashes are one example, he said.
“We want to take a look at crashes, not only as a data point but actually get to the site of the crash itself and find out what caused it,” Kinney said. If it has a contributing factor of a heavy vehicle and sees a specific cluster, it tells us maybe we should be concerned about adding additional trucks.”
The plan will look at other issues besides crashes, according to Kinney.
“We’re just trying to solve any problems brought on by trucks,” Kinney said. “There are a lot of things out there that need to be solved.”
Andrew Crook, Manh Choh’s deputy project manager, provided a brief update on the haul route.
The route will continue to run through Tok, Delta Junction and Salcha. Once trucks reach Fairbanks, drivers will use the Richardson Highway, take the Mitchell Expressway, head north on Peger Road to the Johansen Expressway, travel east to the Steese Highway and head north to Fox and Fort Knox.
“Our priority here is safety, and safety will determine how we execute the final operation,” Crook said.
Crook noted that DOT plans to install new passing lanes along the transport route. The state has already put the passing lanes project out to bid for summer construction.
The emptied tractor-trailers will use the same route returning to Manh Choh.
Kinross selected North Pole-based trucking company Black Gold Express as the contractor. Black Gold Express will create a new arm called Black Gold Transport dedicated specifically to the ore haul plan.
“There is the opportunity for the truck to come into the shop in North Pole for maintenance needs before it heads to Fort Knox,” Crook said. “We will be able to use the underpass at Badger safely for that.”
Crook said Fort Knox will examine a few options for the Steese Highway route north of town, including taking trailers up the section of road one at a time.
“We certainly plan to keep them as large as possible,” Crook said.
A second option under consideration includes building a new access road near the Felix Pedro Monument.
“We would come off the Steese and come up that valley to rejoin the existing access road,” Crook said. “It would take traffic from the section of Steese that turns at Skoagy Creek.”
Residents continued to voice concerns about the project, mostly stirring around safety, increased traffic, impacts to the roads and additional emissions and pollution in the Fairbanks/North Pole PM2.5 non-attainment area.
Some residents said that Kinross should build a local ore refinement facility in Tetlin, while others said the noise impacts are too high.
“How do you accommodate a school bus with a 30-to-80 ton ore hauler every 7 minutes every winter school day in sub-arctic conditions?” Fairbanks resident Sue Wilken asked. “There are four areas on 240 miles that have school bus stops…. and are on two-lane highways.”
Fairbanks resident Don Gray noted there are a lot of angles beyond the trucking plan, adding “this is not going to be easy to settle this issue.”
“This is a community that doesn’t have too many industries and one of them is Kinross Fort Knox … it’s one of the three largest employers,” Gray said. He added it will benefit the Native Village of Tetlin area as well, which lacks a strong economy.
“I think the committee needs to look at the economics of the community,” Gray said.