Alternative D Timeline

Commenting tip: even if you submitted a comment on Preliminary Alternative D (the freeway version in February 2024), you must also comment on the new Parkway Alternative D for your voice to count.

• 2016: The State terminates the previous "Highway-to-Highway" study due to negative public feedback and high costs. (Connecting the Seward and Glenn Highways has been studied for decades, with no action.)

• Feb. 2023: DOT presented its initial concepts in its new "Seward-Glenn Connection" PEL study. In these initial concepts, there was no highway through parklands.

• Feb. 2024: DOT presented its Draft Alternatives. This is where Preliminary Alternative D, a 6-lane freeway through parklands between Northern Light Blvd. and 15th Ave., made its debut.

• Alternative D received the most negative comments in the following comment period. It received over twice as many negative comments as positive ones.

• Dec. 2024: DOT presented its Refined Alternatives. Despite the emphatic public response, Alternative D is still on the table. It is altered from a 6-lane "freeway" to a 4-lane "parkway." The parkway alignment would be 125 feet wide; vehicles would move at 45 mph. It would level about one mile of parkland, forest, and wetlands in the Chester Creek Greenbelt and Sitka Street Park.

• Feb. 2025: Public comments on the Draft Alternatives Refinement and Screening Report, which proposes to advance Parkway Alternative D to the next stage of study, are due by Feb. 28, 2025. Submit a comment!

Below is DOT's depiction of a viaduct over a park, which suggests why Alternative D has a history of public concern and negative feedback.