Overview
- The 211-mile industrial corridor would cross Gates of the Arctic National Park and span 11 major rivers and thousands of salmon-bearing streams.
- Plans call for nearly 50 bridges, thousands of culverts and more than 100 truck trips a day at peak operations.
- Federal biologists warn that heavy traffic could kick up naturally occurring asbestos that settles on waterways and vegetation used by caribou.
- The Bureau of Land Management has designated about 1.2 million acres of nearby spawning and calving habitat as a critical environmental concern.
- The region is warming four times the global rate, the Western Arctic Caribou Herd has dropped 66% to roughly 164,000, and residents are split between hoped-for jobs and subsistence risks with some fearing the road could later open to the public.