Alaska House proposes naming new bridge after Don Young
May 13, 2022 | 10:30 pm ET
Description
This screenshot of a video created by the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities shows the route of the new Juneau Creek Bridge over the Resurrection Pass trail on the Kenai Peninsula. (Screenshot of DOT video)
Alaska’s longest single-span bridge would be named after former Congressman Don Young under legislation passed Wednesday by the Alaska House of Representatives.
The House voted 36-2 to name the planned Juneau Creek bridge on the Sterling Highway after Young, who died earlier this year after 49 years in office.
Reps. Ron Gillham, R-Kenai, and David Nelson, R-Anchorage, made the proposal in an amendment to House Bill 357, from Rep. Geran Tarr, D-Anchorage.
Having passed the House, the bill must receive approval from the state Senate and Gov. Mike Dunleavy in order to become law.
Tarr originally wrote the bill to rename an Anchorage bridge in honor of Insook Baik, a leader of Anchorage’s Korean American community.
She accepted the friendly amendment from Gillham and Nelson to separately rename the Juneau Creek bridge.
That bridge is part of a multimillion-dollar project to reroute 15 miles of the Sterling Highway around Cooper Landing.
Construction of the new highway is expected to last until 2027, according to a timeline published by the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities.
Juneau
