JUNEAU — Alaska has received final federal approval for the King Cove Road, Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced July 10, 2026, marking a milestone in a decades-long effort to connect the communities of King Cove and Cold Bay.
The approval clears the way for year-round road access between the two remote Aleutian communities, a project state officials have pursued through multiple federal administrations.
U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, a Republican seeking reelection this year in a closely watched race, said the permit put Alaska “closer than ever before to delivering a lifesaving, 11-mile, single-lane gravel road to the all-weather airport in Cold Bay.” Sullivan said the decades-long dispute had come to symbolize “an uncaring, out-of-touch, faraway federal government that prioritizes the lives of birds over people.”
The announcement came the same week Dunleavy set a state record for the most vetoes issued during a single two-year Legislature, rejecting 29 of the 115 bills passed by the 34th Alaska Legislature, or more than one in four.
The previous record of 25 vetoes was held by Gov. Tony Knowles in the mid-1990s. Legislative leaders declined to discuss the veto tally at length, citing ongoing negotiations with the governor over a separate, closely watched tax-break bill for the developer of the proposed trans-Alaska natural gas pipeline.
Earlier in the month, Dunleavy vetoed a bill that would have reimposed limits on individual campaign contributions, saying the matter should be left to voters. An identical measure is already slated for the August ballot after the Alaska Legislature failed twice before to reinstate the limits, which a federal appeals court struck down in 2021.
Dunleavy, who will leave office in December, has vetoed 44 bills in total during his tenure, short of the career record of 74 held by former Gov. Jay Hammond. Lawmakers are not expected to attempt an override of the campaign finance veto, since the bill fell short of the 40 votes needed in the House.