The construction company at the heart of a dispute over the removal of an American flag from one of its vehicles in Denali National Park and Preserve says workers removed the flag in response to a visitor complaint over road noise.
A statement released Wednesday by the Federal Highway Administration, which is overseeing construction of a Denali Park Road bridge spanning a landslide at Polychrome Pass, says the National Park Service relayed a visitor complaint about the noise a bridge worker’s vehicle-mounted flag was making while travelling the Park Road. It says the agency’s goal is to minimize impacts and noise for visitors and wildlife as much as possible, and that bridge contractor Granite Construction was notified.
A statement from a Granite spokesperson confirms the FHWA asked the company to remove the vehicle’s flag on May 16. It notes that one of the bridge project’s goals is to “preserve the park’s natural elements and maintain park visitors’ experience by keeping a low profile as we go about our work.”
The removal of the flag, which U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan said in a letter to Park Service Director Charles F. Sams III had been caused by “someone at the National Park Service,” ignited a firestorm on social media over the Memorial Day weekend, with a denial of that claim posted by park staff on Facebook drawing more than 700 comments. It also inspired people to drive a convoy of vehicles displaying American flags from Fairbanks and other locations into the park in protest Sunday.
Sullivan’s letter also asked Sams for an explanation of what happened, and urged him to take steps to ensure a similar incident won’t happen again in a national park.
Dan Bross is a reporter at KUAC in Fairbanks.
