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 state transportation department said 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.

The federal government's position is that the road is lawful. Interior found on Aug. 14 that the project is compatible with the purposes of the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, the finding the conservation plaintiffs are now challenging. [CONFIRM: add a quote from the state transportation department's Friday announcement if one exists, so the state's position is in its own words.]

Defenders of Wildlife brought the motion and said the Ninth Circuit denied its emergency request 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 road through Izembek that they contend is illegal.

"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. Briefing on the appeal isn't set to finish until mid-November, and the segment is planned for completion by December.

The road has moved through permitting and litigation in stages. In August, a federal judge in Alaska vacated the land exchange between Interior and King Cove Corporation that would enable the larger road, finding it violated three federal conservation laws. The same judge then declined to block the 2.8-mile segment while the exchange remained vacated, and construction began Sept. 1. A separate lawsuit challenges the wetlands permit the Army Corps issued in July.