State posts highway planning documents
The state Department of Transportation has posted the revised highway planning documents that it is praying the federal government will approve by the end of March.
The documents for the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program can be found here.
The cover letter by Commissioner Ryan Anderson attached as part of the so-called “STIP narrative” asserts that this is a “transparent resource for the public” and provides a “clear overview of planned projects.”
Sorry, it’s not that at all.
The “STIP narrative” can be found here.
It’s a few thousand pages of complicated material aimed at those who know state and federal regulations and laws about building roads, etc. The complexity is understandable.
The main consumers of these documents live and breathe awkward acronyms and bureaucratese. They must be the only ones who know, for instance, what it means when the STIP authors refer to “child stage 1” and “parent final stage” projects.
The department has failed to provide anything written in clear English that can be called a transparent resource for the public. An interpretation is required before anyone can claim that this is a “transparent resource for the public.”
A simple statement that says what projects have been excluded from the revised plan and why is a must. Along with details on why the state believes the document will be approved. In addition, the state should explain the major changes in numbers on some projects.
A department that makes it possible for people to get a “yodel pass” for the Whittier Tunnel can surely get this done.
The Juneau Empire has this review of projects in the Juneau region.
In the Fairbanks area, the proposed replacement of the Steese Highway bridge over Chena Hot Springs Road is gone from the plan, as is replacing the northbound lanes of the Richardson Highway over the Chena flood control project. Both of those are in the Fairbanks planning area and had not received the required local approval. Both projects were inserted to benefit the Kinross ore hauling plan.
The removal of those projects was expected because the state did not follow federal regulations in coming up with those plans without consulting with local officials regarding local priorities.
Other projects triggered by the Kinross plan and backed by the Dunleavy administration remain in the plan, with some delays.
The Robertson River bridge replacement, for $136 million, is on for 2027, while the Johnson
River bridge replacement, for about $90 million, is on for 2025-2026. The Gerstle River bridge, however, has been pushed back to 2028-2030. A total of $35.5 million is estimated for part of that work, with $92 million needed after 2027.
