Ninth Circuit lets King Cove road work continue while appeal runs into November

Crews are continuing to build the first 2.8 miles of the King Cove to Cold Bay road after a federal appeals court this week denied a motion to stop the work. The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities announced it Friday.

The segment sits on King Cove Corporation land, the first piece of a proposed 18.9-mile single-lane gravel road to Cold Bay's all-weather airport, a connection the community has sought for more than three decades.

"Our local airport is inaccessible due to weather conditions for roughly 120 days each year, making dependable travel for emergencies, medical care, and other essential needs difficult or impossible," King Cove Mayor Warren Wilson said.

Defenders of Wildlife brought the motion and said Wednesday that the Ninth Circuit denied its emergency motion to halt construction on the segment "leading to the doorstep of Izembek National Wildlife Refuge and Wilderness." Defenders and other conservation plaintiffs call the segment a de facto gateway to a larger, illegal road through Izembek, and are challenging Interior's Aug. 14 finding that the project is compatible with the refuge's purposes.

Defenders says briefing on the appeal is not scheduled to conclude until mid-November, and that the segment is planned for completion by December.

"Today's decision unfortunately allows the bulldozers to keep rolling to finish a road that will lead to nothing but more harm to Izembek's wildlife and wilderness," said Defenders senior attorney Jane Davenport, who said the fight is not over.

The road has moved through federal permitting and litigation in stages: a July 10 wetlands permit from the Army Corps of Engineers drew a lawsuit from conservation groups, and an August 18 ruling by the federal district court in Alaska vacated the October 2025 land exchange between Interior and King Cove Corporation for violating the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA), the Endangered Species Act and the National Wildlife Refuge Act. A federal judge then declined to block the 2.8-mile segment while the exchange stayed vacated and the Corps permit stayed suspended, and construction began Sept. 1.

More than 20 King Cove residents have completed safety training and earned DOT&PF certificates, and five have earned commercial driver's licenses. The Federal Highway Administration and Federal Transit Administration recently approved an amendment to Alaska's Statewide Transportation Improvement Program that funds the road.

The project is being delivered with King Cove Corporation and The Aleut Corporation, both landowners in the corridor, with support from the King Cove Tribe, the City of King Cove and the Aleutians East Borough. Both accounts come from parties to the case.