Dozen lawmakers say state road plan changes put 2025 construction season at risk
The Dunleavy administration remains at odds with local government agencies responsible for developing plans to build and improve roads in Anchorage, Fairbanks and Mat-Su.
The bureaucratic fog is thick enough to prompt a dozen Democratic and independent legislators to ask Transportation Commissioner Ryan Anderson to cancel road planning changes announced in July to the State Transportation Improvement Plan.
They said the wide-ranging changes in projects and allocations will put the 2025 road construction season in the three areas at risk.
Here is the August 5 letter from Sens. Forrest Dunbar, Elvi Gray-Jackson, and Reps. Jennie Armstrong, Zack Fields, Andrew Gray, Rebecca Himschoot, Calvin Schrage, Maxine Dibert, Alyse Galvin, Cliff Groh, Andy Josephson and Andi Story.
The lawmakers said the mix-and-match funding arrangements sprinkled through the 1,426-page amendment have left everyone confused about what is funded, what will be funded in the years ahead and what commitments the state is making.
They said that with recent vetoes by Gov. Mike Dunleavy, there is “no clear path” to deal with the maintenance of existing roads and bridges, let alone new infrastructure projects.
They said the amendment would take funds “from dozens of projects from around the state, produce delays that endanger next year’s construction season and propose an unprecedented amount of ‘advance construction’ spending that obligates future federal match now.”
The combination could create a situation in the years ahead in which the state raids the funds designated for Anchorage, Fairbanks and Ma-Su “while simultaneously robbing Alaskans of capital projects to solve safety needs of existing infrastructure.”
The federal government first rejected the state highway plan last year, but approved an amended version in March.
The Anchorage Transportation Planning Organization said the state plan includes 11 projects in the Anchorage area that are not part of the Anchorage road plan. It also cited numerous errors in the state document.
The state plan appears to set aside nearly $1 billion from 2024-2027 in “advance construction,” without specifying how future road construction budgets will be able to absorb hundreds of millions in reductions to compensate for those allocations. The amount “severely limits flexibility for funding future projects.”
The Fairbanks planning agency said the 1,426-page amendment did not include a list of what projects were added and what projects were removed and what projects were changed.
“This makes it difficult for reviewers to discern what has changed,” the Fairbanks group said. A word search of the document turned up 36 new projects, but no information on what has been cut to balance the planning budget.
The Mat-Su planning agency also raised numerous questions with the text of the state plan.
In their letter, legislators called on the state to focus on fixing deficiencies in the plan and doing a better job of working with the local planning agencies.
_____________________________
VIETNAM: I heard from a lot of people about my blog post on Sen. Dan Sullivan’s Vietnam resolution. The most touching was from a reader who told me about her brother.
“Yes, the problem started at the top. But, like all things of that magnitude, the worst ran downhill on the military in uniform. Subsequently, I lost my older brother who is buried in a national cemetery. He was a pilot and loved his country and his uniform and service. I remember that he did suffer the blunt edged anger of his work in the service and the news in our home state at the time was extremely critical of the servicemen and the war. But as time passes, the heartache on such events mellow and pass as well. I still miss my older brother and his good character.”
Your contributions help support independent analysis and political commentary by Alaska reporter and author Dermot Cole. Thank you for reading and for your support. Either click here to use PayPal or send checks to: Dermot Cole, Box 10673, Fairbanks, AK 99710-0673.
Write me at dermotmcole@gmail.com.