The National Park Service (NPS) is proposing to expand the 5 Mile Pit and rehabilitate the 7 Mile Pit along the Denali Park Road. The 7 Mile Pit would accept reject material from a road-repaving project and then be re-contoured, re-vegetated and abandoned. The 5 Mile Pit would be expanded by up to 2.4 acres for government and contractor material storage.
The purpose of the project would be to concentrate road maintenance storage operations at the 5 Mile Pit and cease operations at the 7 Mile Pit, where wildlife activity now competes with maintenance functions.
Both the 5 Mile and 7 Mile Pits were developed as borrow sites either during original construction of the Denali Park Road or during upgrades in the 1960s. A multi-acre storage area is needed along the park road near Park Headquarters to provide room for permanent and temporary stockpiles of various types of aggregate, rock, topsoil, culverts, reject material and seasonal equipment, and for similar uses by contractors as a laydown area during projects.
The NPS has published an environmental assessment (EA) for this project entitled “Expansion of the 5 Mile Pit and Rehabilitation of the 7 Mile Pit." It is available at the NPS planning website at parkplanning.nps.gov. The EA analyzes the impacts of the “No Action" alternative and one action alternative. It was completed in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 and the regulations of the Council on Environmental Quality (40 CFR 1508.9).
Comments on the EA may be submitted through Aug. 10, 2015, preferably via the website at parkplanning.nps.gov. Comments may also be mailed to Superintendent, Attn: 5 Mile Pit EA, Denali National Park and Preserve, P.O. Box 9, Denali Park, AK 99755 or faxed to 907-683-9612. For questions or paper copies of the EA, please contact Steve Carwile, Compliance Officer, at 907-644-3612 or e-mail us.
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
