Nearly everyone agrees that moving railroad tracks away from Wasilla's downtown business district would ease congestion, make driving safer and enhance the area.
But exactly where to move the tracks and how to pay for the relocation are questions that remain to be answered.
A city-funded study released Jan. 24 said moving the tracks is "technically feasible" and would take seven to 10 years to complete.
The cost, depending on the route, would be $47 million to $62.5 million, the study said.
That's money the Alaska Railroad Corp. doesn't have now or in the foreseeable future, said Patrick Flynn, Alaska Railroad spokesman in Anchorage.
"The goals of the project study are right on," Flynn said. "When you talk about improving safety, traffic flow and straightening track for more efficient run times, you're speaking our language. Things get a little muddier you try to find out how to pay for it."
"It's not cheap, but they can be moved," said Scott Hattenburg of Hattenburg & Dilley LLC, an Anchorage-based engineering firm paid $31,800 to perform the yearlong study.
"The project has merit, but the numbers are so huge they (Alaska Railroad) gag on it," said Hattenburg.
The relocation project, if done, would have to be broken in phases and not paid for entirely by the railroad, Hattenburg said.
"I think the railroad would find it more financially palatable if it were broken into smaller pieces and the burden shared," Hattenburg said.
Five alternative routes were identified in the study, ranging from about six to eight miles of track relocation, and doing away with most or all of the 11 at-grade crossings in the downtown corridor.
The most practical routes, Hattenburg said, are located to the south of the Parks Highway since most property to the north has been developed.
It's more than money that may derail the track relocation project, as many residents on the south side of the tracks have strongly resisted the project, at least the routes that would run by them.
The city has received more than 200 comments on the relocation project, said Mayor Sarah Palin.
"People want the tracks moved but they just don't want it moved by them. And that's understandable," Palin said.
Several residents have complained the city was "railroading'' the relocation project, Palin said. But the mayor emphasized the process has been completely open to the public and no route has been favored over another by the city.
For more than 20 years there have been efforts to relocate the tracks out of downtown, Palin said.
"This has been talked about ever since I was a child," Palin said.
In a 1999 traffic study, the state Department of Transportation & Public Facilities said nearly 13,000 vehicles crossed tracks daily at Knik-Goose Bay Road. Additionally, the traffic study said, 240 school busses carry nearly 12,000 children daily over the tracks.
Under state law, school buses must stop at every crossing.
Some 3,200 trains pass through Wasilla annually, according to the railroad.
There was a fatal accident involving a train and automobile in the mid-1980s.
The Matanuska-Susitna Valley region is currently the fastest growing region in the state with an annual growth rate of more than 3 percent.
According to the city-funded study, with the population growth safety concerns will only increase.
"We've got to do something," Palin said. "The problem is not going to go away."
According to the city study, a new highway extension under construction should ease traffic congestion somewhat at the Knik-Goose Bay crossing.
The Alaska Railroad has received $3.1 million in federal money to perform an environmental impact statement for the relocation project. But the state-owned railroad has recommended the money be put toward other projects because of the resistance from landowners and the improbability of funding the entire project anytime soon.
Flynn, of the Alaska Railroad, said the money for the environmental impact study could instead go toward track and crossing improvements near Knik-Goose Bay Road, for example.
"That's just one possibility," Flynn said.
Palin and Flynn said the proposed Knik Arm crossing, if it were ever a reality, would greatly lessen train traffic in Wasilla.
Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, is chairman of the U.S. House's Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and has said he is committed to funding a road and rail link between Anchorage and Point MacKenzie, a project that has a price tag of more than $1 billion, according to some estimates.
