Transportation plan for Alaska moving forward
BY JAMES BROOKS, ALASKA BEACON
Federal officials in March approved most of Alaska’s four-year statewide transportation improvement program, or STIP, but not before excluding six projects from among the hundreds planned for coming years. The partial approval brought a sense of relief to state legislators in the Capitol. It came after the agency, in an extraordinary action, rejected the state’s first submission, citing 24 pag - es of flaws with the $5.6 billion plan. The STIP is required by the feder- al government as a precondition for receiving the federal grants that pay for most of Alaska’s budget for roads, trails, bridges and tunnels. Had the plan been fully rejected a second time, the refusal would have endangered parts of the summer construction season, with economic ripple effects across Alaska. Among the six items excluded this week were $68.7 million earmarked for repairs to the Port of Alaska in Anchorage and the state’s plan to use $19.8 million in existing ferry ticket sales to match federal grants for fer- ry-related projects. An official with the Alaska Department of Transpor- tation and Public Facilities said both items should still be funded, albeit in ways outside the STIP. The six exclusions identified by the Federal Highway Administration: n $500,000 for planning to improve passenger rail service to places between Fairbanks and Seward, including An- chorage, Whittier, Wasilla, Talkeetna, Denali National Park and Nenana; n $7.1 million to replace a bridge on Aurora Drive in Fairbanks over Noyes Slough; n $68.7 million for part of the Port of Alaska project in Anchorage; n $407,284 for a program intend- ed to plan for disaster recovery; n The state’s plan to use $19.8 million in existing ferry ticket sales to match federal grants for ferry-related projects; n and $23.2 million for bridge and tunnel inspections.
Photo by Lee Leschper Alaska DOT Commissioner Ryan Anderson speaks at the convention, the same day federal authorities approved the state’s transportation plan.
In a letter dated March 27, FHWA division administrator Sandra Gar- cia-Aline said the agency appreciated its work with the state Department of Transportation and Public Facilities over the past month but outlined some continued problems that could be ad- dressed and fixed through amend - ments to the transportation plan. Three projects — the railroad plan, Fairbanks bridge and Port of Alaska work — need to be amended into local planning office documents. Shannon McCarthy, director of communications for the state DOT, said the agency “mistakenly put the (Port of Alaska work) into the STIP.” Money for the project was requested by municipal officials and should have been listed in a local transportation improvement projects list, not the statewide list. The Fairbanks bridge
work has already been done, McCarthy said, but the state listed it incorrect- ly in the STIP. When it comes to fer- ry funding, McCarthy said the state is pursuing a different approval method outside the STIP and incorrectly in- cluded the money within the plan. The disaster planning program didn’t meet federal standards for being labeled a group project, FHWA officials wrote. Federal officials also critiqued the process used by the state to write the STIP, noting that public comments weren’t accepted after a 45-day peri- od, and that the state didn’t properly document its consultation with tribes. James Brooks is a longtime Alaska re- porter, having previously worked at the Anchorage Daily News, Juneau Em- pire, Kodiak Mirror and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
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The Alaska Miner
Spring 2024
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