Palin team sees low morale in Southeast
Road projects fuel strife in transportation sector, advisors say
By PAT FORGEY JUNEAU EMPIRE
Gov. Sarah Palin must deal with serious morale problems in the Southeast Region of the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, according to a report from her transition team.
The problems stem from former Gov. Frank Murkowski's attempts to rush two controversial road projects in the last days of his administration, the 12-member team said.
The investigators found "great employee strife and conflict over these projects impacting overall morale," in Southeast.
The team's results,
a six-inch thick stack of documents, were issued Dec. 19 but made public on Friday in response to public-records requests. They
touched on Murkowski's last days in office.
At the time, the Transportation Department was trying to begin work on a project linking Juneau to the nation's highway system with a road along Lynn Canal to a shuttle ferry connecting with Haines and Skagway at the Katzehin River.
Murkowski's administration rushed to get the project moving
without adequate funding or permits. Eventually, it called for bids on a "pioneer road," segments of a gravel road without bridges that would have ended at the Kensington Mine, 45 air miles north of Juneau.
That project, enmeshed in legal and regulatory controversy, was canceled by Palin soon after she took office. More work needs to be done to restore the department's credibility, according to the report.
Murkowski, who's traveling around the world, could not be reached for comment.
Both the Juneau road and the Ketchikan Gravina Island Bridge project, known by its detractors as the "Bridge to Nowhere," drew criticism in the report.
"Statewide, these two projects are seen as a severe drain on resources that would otherwise be assigned to heavily used commercial and passenger routes," the report said.
The team said
federal earmarks in Congressional appropriations trump all other priorities, including those in the State Transportation Improvement Plan, and the state suffers as a result.
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