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According to A Citizen’s Guide to NEPA, a purpose and need statement describes what agencies are trying to achieve by proposing an action.  The purpose and need statement explains to the reader why an agency action is necessary, and serves as the basis for identifying the reasonable alternatives that meet the purpose and need.

Working Draft Purpose & Need (approved for public distribution on 12/23/2009)
click here for PDF Version

Purpose

The purpose of the Highway-to-Highway project is to reduce congestion by improving mobility* and access** for people and goods traveling to and from Anchorage’s major urban activity centers between the Seward and Glenn highways. These improvements are necessary for reducing congestion and improving travel efficiency, creating better neighborhood connections, reducing crashes, and enhancing multimodal connections.

Employment Density Map

Transportation Needs

The following transportation needs have been identified:

1. Reduce Congestion: Heavy and increasing traffic during peak commuting hours causes unacceptable congestion and delay on the existing arterial connection and on alternate routes.
2. Improve Travel Efficiency: The Seward and Glenn highways are controlled-access freeways that transition into urban arterial streets. The stop-and-go conditions on the arterial streets (conditions that are caused by multiple traffic signals and driveways) decrease travel efficiency to user destinations. Increasing traffic is anticipated to make travel efficiency worse.
3. Improve Neighborhood Connectivity: The wide streets and heavy traffic volumes of the existing arterial connection make travel across and along this road difficult for bicycle, pedestrian, and vehicle users and adversely affect adjacent neighborhoods. Increasing traffic is anticipated to make neighborhood connections and adverse impacts worse.
4. Improve Safety: Locations along the existing arterial connection, and on alternate travel routes that receive overflow traffic due to congestion on the existing arterial connection, have high numbers of crashes that result in property damage, fatalities, and severe injuries. Increasing traffic is anticipated to make safety conditions worse. The corridor presents major concerns for pedestrian safety.
5. Improve Modal Interrelationships: Public transportation service through the Glenn Highway corridor is impeded by traffic congestion and transfers to local bus routes are not easily scheduled. As demand for transit services continues to increase, transportation planning on both the Seward and Glenn highway corridors should develop alternatives to coordinate land use with transportation and increase non-motorized modal travel while moving people more efficiently throughout the region.  Freight mobility to the port, rail yard, and airport are impeded by traffic congestion and inefficiency in the arterial connection.

*Mobility. The term “mobility” is defined by FHWA as “The ability to move or be moved from place to place” www.fhwa.dot.gov/planning/glossary. This “ability to move or be moved” is not mode dependent but applies to vehicles, transit, pedestrians, and bicyclists. According to FHWA, mobility can be measured in terms of “travel times, level of traffic congestion, or duration of congestion – all of which focus on how long it takes to get from place to place” www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/cmaqpgs/amaq/03cmaq1.htm.

**Access. The term “access” is a feature of roads that serve the start and end of a trip, where access to adjacent property is the primary function. For a discussion of the dual roles of mobility and access played by the highway network see www.fhwa.dot.gov/planning/fcsec2_1.htm.

Project Objectives

Reasonable alternatives should achieve the following:

Need 1. Reduce Congestion

• Reduce unacceptable, peak-hour congestion on the arterial road segments of the Seward and Glenn highways
• Reduce spillover, cut-through traffic on adversely affected adjacent parallel arterials.
• Reduce demand on alternate routes for traffic that is more appropriately served by the National Highway System

Need 2. Improve Travel Efficiency

• Improve travel time to user destinations, including major employment centers in Downtown, Midtown, and University-Medical District
• Improve travel time for traffic heading north or south through Anchorage
• Safely and efficiently accommodate mobility for longer trips and accessibility to adjacent land parcels and local streets

Need 3. Improve Neighborhood Connections

• Make it easier to cross the existing arterial segments of the corridor
• Improve local circulation for motorized and non-motorized travel along and across the corridor
• Reduce adverse effects to neighborhoods caused by traffic conditions and facilitate safe and convenient local travel in the neighborhoods

Need 4. Improve Safety

• Reduce crash rates in the corridor and on alternate routes for vehicles, pedestrians, and bicyclists
• Improve bicycle and pedestrian safety (i.e. between and across the Seward and Glenn highways)

Need 5. Improve Modal Interrelationships

• Improve travel time for transit services using and crossing the corridor
• Build improvements that facilitate the transfer of passengers from commuter transit services to local transit services
• Improve travel time for freight (truck) trips serving major intermodal port, rail, and airport facilities.
• Provide convenient and efficient linkages among public transportation, pedestrian and bicycle facilities, and roadways
• Reduce single occupant vehicle (SOV) usage in the design year as compared to the No Action Alternative.

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