Road extension, new bridge on Susitna, now part of state’s approved transportation plan

An 18-mile new road and a bridge across the Susitna River are part of the State Transportation Improvement Plan now approved by federal highway officials.

The overall plan lists $5.6 billion in projects to be eligible for federal funds over four years. The state must have an approved plan before federal money can be spent.

Alaska’s Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, or DOTPF, will manage construction of the road to the Susitna and the bridge. Road construction will begin in 2025 and work on the bridge in 2027, said Shannon McCarthy, spokesperson for the DOTPF.

A plan is also in the works for a separate, industrial road built further west from the bridge by the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, the state’s development finance corporation, but that will depend on whether commercial users can found to pay for the longer road.

There are mining companies exploring in the region west of Skwentna that could use the road if mines are developed but exploration is still at a very early stage. The companies would sign contracts to use the road and pay tolls to AIDEA for pay for the construction and operating costs, similar to the way the Red Dog Mine road and port in Northwest Alaska is paid for by tolls from shipping ore from the Red Dog Mine.

However, even before there are mines to pay for the industrial road the public highway built 18 miles to the Susitna, and the bridge, will open to the public for recreation and possible commercial development. Oil and gas companies will also be able to use the road and bridge to move equipment for natural gas exploration on the west side of Cook Inlet.

Hilcorp Energy, the major gas producer, has said that lack of overland surface access to Cook Inlet’s west side is an impediment to exploration in the area because winter ice conditions now impede access. Barging of equipment during the summer raises costs. Southcentral Alaska needs new gas exploration because existing fields will be declining in a few years.

Federal officials approved most of Alaska’s four-year statewide transportation improvement program, or STIP, last Wednesay, but not before excluding six projects from among several hundred planned for coming years.

The partial approval brought a sense of relief to state legislators in Juneau. It came after the agency, in an extraordinary action, rejected the state’s first submission, citing 24 pages of flaws with the $5.6 billion plan. 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 ferry-related projects. An official with the Alaska Department of Transportation 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:

• $500,000 for planning to improve passenger rail service to places between Fairbanks and Seward, including Anchorage, Whittier, Wasilla, Talkeetna, Denali National Park and Nenana;

• $7.1 million to replace a bridge on Aurora Drive in Fairbanks over Noyes Slough;

• $68.7 million for part of the Port of Alaska project in Anchorage;

• $407,284 for a program intended to plan for disaster recovery;

• The state’s plan to use $19.8 million in existing ferry ticket sales to match federal grants for ferry-related projects;

• and $23.2 million for bridge and tunnel inspections.

In a letter dated Wednesday, FHWA division administrator Sandra Garcia-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 addressed and fixed through amendments 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.

McCarthy, DOTPF’s communications director, 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 incorrectly in the STIP.

When it comes to ferry funding, McCarthy said the state is pursuing a different approval method outside the STIP and incorrectly included the money within the plan.

The disaster planning program didn’t meet federal standards for being labeled a group project, FHWA officials wrote.

In addition to the projects excluded from Wednesday’s approval, 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 period, and that the state didn’t properly document its consultation with tribes.