Community Perspective
Road plan nears comment deadline
State document guides projects for four years
Published Tuesday, October 6, 2009
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Stumble It!October 16 marks the deadline for public comments on the draft State Transportation Improvement Plan, or the STIP. In the simplest terms, the STIP is the roadmap for projects that will be designed and constructed by the state Department of Transportation and Public Facilities in coming years. Right now, we are looking at the years 2010-2013.
Surface transportation funding can be confusing. To answer questions, DOT&PF will host a STIP Open House on Wednesday from 5-7 p.m. at the department offices, 2301 Peger Road. Staff will be on hand to explain the STIP, answer questions and take public comment.
The STIP is a four-year listing of transportation projects under consideration for some phase of implementation by DOT&PF, consistent with the long-range statewide transportation plan. For projects to be eligible for federal transportation funding, all states must create a STIP document. The STIP encompasses all of Alaska and is developed in cooperation with local government officials and metropolitan planning organizations to address needs and concerns for the transportation system.
To review the draft STIP, you can visit www.dot.alaska.gov and select “2010-2013 STIP” under the “highlights” column. The STIP can be viewed in its entirety or it can be filtered by location, need, type of work to be done and other categories. The document also provides project information such as the average daily traffic, functional class, pre-construction pavement condition and the score given the project by the project evaluation board. As you review the STIP, it is important to keep in mind how projects are selected and the unique factors influencing the 2010-2013 STIP.
Project selection
There are several categories of projects that are selected for the STIP. Each of these categories has a funding source and a method of project selection that is unique from the other categories.
• National Highway System and the Alaska Highway System: Alaska DOT&PF selects projects located along the NHS and the AHS because these routes are owned and maintained by the state. Projects that are funded along the NHS and the AHS are selected based on pavement preservation, pavement management and bridge management systems.
• Community Transportation Program and Trails and Recreational Access for Alaska: The public (local governments, Native organizations, private parties, villages, etc.) and DOT&PF submits project nominations to be funded through CTP and TRAAK funds. Approximately 1,000 projects were nominated during the nomination period of Dec. 2008-Feb. 2009. Each project is evaluated and given a numerical score on a regional level. Top-ranked projects are taken to the project evaluation board to compete statewide.
• Fairbanks Metropolitan Area Transportation System and Anchorage Metropolitan Area Transportation System: These metropolitan planning organizations each have a local policy board that oversees the project selection within its metropolitan planning boundaries.
Unique challenges
Several challenges factored into creating the 2010-2013 STIP. First, the level of federal funding that will come into the state for transportation projects is unknown. The current federal funding source expired on Sept. 30, 2009.
Second, the Federal Highway Trust Fund was projected to run out of money in August, but Congress provided temporary relief by appropriating additional funds. Both of these issues must be resolved before states can anticipate future levels of federal funding.
A third factor influencing the 2010-2013 draft STIP is the federal economic stimulus bill. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 provided more than $216 million for Alaska projects with very tight deadlines. While some of these funds were used immediately, other ARRA-funded projects can be found in this draft STIP. It is important to note that the ARRA funds for these projects must be obligated by the middle of February 2010.
Because of the uncertainty of funding levels, conservative estimates were used in the development of the 2010-2013 draft STIP and are subject to change once a new transportation bill is in place. In the event that additional funding becomes available, there is a new list included with the STIP, called the “illustrative list.” Projects on this list can advance in the event that another project is dropped, bids come in lower than expected, other states are unable to use their ARRA funds or if additional funding becomes available for other reasons.
If you have any questions about the 2010-2013 STIP, please contact us at any time.
Meadow Bailey is the public information officer for the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities’ Northern Region. She can be reached at 451-2240 or meadow.bailey@alaska.gov.
Community Discussion
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Alaska never gets any new roads. Look what has been built in the last
thirty years, nothing! This article is a load of B.S. as nothing will
ever be built in Alaska. The Obama Administration has stated no development of any kind in this State. So, this report is totally B.S.
The report by Ms. Bailey is not totally BS. She is very accurate in all aspects of the article. Most of the projects in the STIP are repair or upgrade projects. Building new roads is a great idea, but paying for the future maintainance is diffucult in this current economic climate. Due to funding constraints, DOT has a hard enough time keeping up with the roads they have let alone adding new roads to their list of responsibilities. They do the best they can with what they have to work with.
The Department of Transportation should have name change to the Department of Maintenance. Good thing WW II came along or Fairbanks would still be the end of the line for the Alaska Rail-Road.
Yep, think they need a little vision and foresight in their fancy office before the only thing they are doing is paving the parking lot.
To the author, thanks for the link reference.
id be happy to see some more right turn lanes in this town
"Surface transportation funding can be confusing."
Yes, if allowed to be so. Funny how the more "confusing" something is, the more special interests, pet projects, funding loopholes, and completely unrelated activities can be added in.
Demand more, people! If a contract, legislative bill, ordinance, etc. isn't understood by the least of us, it needs to go back for a rewrite!
Just because a road project is built on top of an existing road does not mean it is not a new road. Take the Steese Expressway, Farmers Loop, Geist Rd., Old Rich (thru NP), and many others going back to '67 and Airport Rd. And the major rebuilds as have taken place on the Steese, Elliott, Richardson and Parks in the last 30-40 years have completely changed sections of those roads as well. None of them resemble the roads they replaced; that makes them "new" roads.
And anyone who has been here a while knows that since the end of the 60s there have been many new roads around here... most notable the Parks and the Dalton, but also such urban roads as Geist to the Parks, the Steese Expressway, the Johansen Expressway, the Mitchell Expressway, Peger across the Chena, Nordale from the Chena to CHSR, a whole host of roads in the NP area... and others.
Bitching about DOT not building roads is a ridiculous charge. Building roads just to build roads is silly... you have to somehow justify the expense other than saying "wouldn't it be neat to be able to drive there." We have major roads now that hardly anyone drives... there is only about 25 vehicles per day on the Steese past the Chatanika R. for instance. If the road was not already there, there is no way the State could justify building it.
We really needed cowles street fixed. way to go. BS its been thirty? forty? years since anyone's even mentioned doing something to s. cushman, and what about 23rd they're the worst in town. and why did it take all summer to do what 2 miles of road. when they did thirty on CHSR in the same time. yes i know they worked overnight on CHSR and not cowles, but c'mon it was 30 vs. 2 and it took the SAME AMOUNT of time.
ok thats my rant, i don't really know everything that went on, on both projects but still.
ptls... Cowles, S. Cushman and 23rd are City streets; CHSR is a State road. Maybe you should have voted FOR the sales tax. ;-)
so if the sales tax passed they would go back in time and fix cowles faster and would have done s cushman or 23rd instead of van horn??
Again... Van Horn is a State road... you would have to use your individual influence on the City officials to get them to fix Cushman or 23rd. Being critical is fine, but at least get the responsible party correct.
ok i was wrong. i believe i had this discussion with someone else earlier and they said van horn was the city project for the summer, because "it relly needed it". Ok, so they were wrong and I was misinformed. my question still remains would a sales tax have made the cowles st. project go faster? I doubt it. I do know they were doing more than just the roadway, something about a water/sewer line.I've never seen such a small project take so long. and yes I know CHSR is a state project but they didn't have more than twice as many people on that project. and they got 30 miles of road paved. I'm pretty sure money doen't make THAT much of a difference(just look at all the fires this year)
How about a dozen freeway over passes?
Cuts air pollution from idling cars waiting on the lights and reduces accidents from trying to stop on the icy pavement.
I think Samm will tell you thats a city problem and if you want something like that we'll need a sales tax to line the pockets of those who design our roads.
Don't shoot the messenger ptls.
You "need" a sales tax (according to the proponents of that issue - not me) to maintain the city roads. A rebuild can be considered heavy maintenance if the existing road is too far gone.
The designers of road projects are on salary... they get paid for the work that they do; they do not "line their pockets" from the taxes anymore then the office supply businesses line theirs for selling xerox paper to the City.
Maybe 6 lanes would releive congestion on the Steese from Mitchell overpass to Johansson, and maybe Airport way also. I noticed just this year that when traveling on Steese north at the Airport way intersection, I average 3 green light cycles before I get through. Traffic is getting like Anchorage......bad.
ptls- welcome to the union workday/workrules.
For everyone complaing about the traffic I propose the same solution as I offered in Reno in a similar situation: remove all private vehicles from the downtown area. Build a huge multi-level parking complex and charge a quarter per 15 minutes to park there, residents of downtown area park for free. Then make everyone walk to their destinations: umm walking= no more traffic. For the more impatient there are always bicycles or Segways...
The only road I'd like to see built is a better/quicker link from N.P. to CHSResort. Even after utilizing Nordale Road, that's a long drive.
On another note: does anyone here know when Circle Hot Springs will finally reopen?
Are you saying that city workers are union and state aren't? Just curious, not sarcastic.
As far as your suggestion, not a bad idea use.. Except that Reno doesn't get 1/2 as cold as Fairbanks. Although I would support something like that stricly for the summers(all the tourists).
Also I heard from someone the other day, we were talking about circle. They were saying that circle is open, but only for the locals. Thats just what I heard though I don't know if its true.
And lastly as far as the "need" for a sales tax goes maybe we should look at Washinton State. Their sales tax has done nothing but go up and shortly after the property tax was lowered it went right back up. There is no limit as to how much any government wants. Just think about your salary; are you happywith what you make? do you not want any more money? governments are the same way, always wanting more to do the same thing they've always been doing. I'll vote for a new tax just as soon as governments(be it borough, state, federal, or whatever) as soon as they learn to spend wisely and not on useless issues. Give me results and I'll give you the means to do more. Waste my time/money and I won't give you anymore.
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