Bethel commission to weigh $675,000 gravel trail to YKHC campus to replace closed boardwalk

Bethel's Public Safety and Transportation Commission on Wednesday, Oct. 7, will take up a recommendation on a $675,000 plan for a gravel trail to the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation (YKHC) campus, replacing an elevated boardwalk the city closed as unsafe.

The City Sub-YK Trail would run about 2,800 feet from Akiak Street in City Subdivision to the parking lot of YKHC's Primary Care Center. The city's memo says the old boardwalk closed because deteriorated conditions made it unsafe. Without a trail, the memo says, pedestrians may use routes along Chief Eddie Hoffman Highway, where there is no continuous separated pedestrian pathway.

A guide written by YKHC says the boardwalk had been closed for years, leaving walkers to choose between crossing the tundra and walking along the highway.

The memo says the trail fits Bethel's 2045 comprehensive plan, which calls for moving away from "expensive, difficult-to-maintain elevated boardwalks" toward surface-level trails where appropriate.

The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities awarded $200,000 after selecting the trail as one of its FY2026 diversified trail projects through a competitive statewide process. The city has requested, but not yet received, about $202,000 from the Denali Commission's Rural Transportation Match and Gap Funding Assistance Program, which the memo says helps rural projects that have federal funding but need match money. Bethel would cover the remaining $272,000, about 40 percent of the cost.

City administration says YKHC patients, employees, children, older adults and households without vehicles would benefit most. The memo calls walking "a no-cost form of transportation."

Any recommendation goes to the Bethel City Council, which must accept the grant, back the Denali application and commit the city's share.

Written comments for the commission are due to [email protected] by 4 pm Wednesday. Residents can also speak, five minutes each, at the 6:30 pm meeting at City Hall.