I wholeheartedly support the two state senators and 10 state representatives who wrote to the Alaska Department of Transportation Commissioner Ryan Anderson to cancel the recent amendments to the state road plan called the STIP, Surface Transportation Improvement Program. The amendments should be withdrawn. The discrepancies and inaccuracies need to be corrected. Alaska DOT needs to work and communicate with the local municipal planning organizations. This amendment besides being bureaucratically confusing puts at risk future road planning work by the unprecedented amount of “advance construction spending,” also called “overprogramming.” This obligates the state to future projects that put at risk the safety, operation, and maintenance of current roads and bridges.
The Alaska DOT’s STIP mix-and-match funding lacks transparency, has inaccuracies, and buries the true costs. It is slipshod. For example, the public comment for the scoping Environmental Assessment process for the 23-mile West Susitna Access Road is occurring right now. HDR LLC is doing the work for Alaska DOT, which is doing the work for the Federal Highway Administration. Their website and information for commenting is www.westsuaccess.com. The website has changed at least seven times since July 24. This is right in the middle of the public comment process. Information and maps have disappeared or changed. A real lack of transparency.
This is just one example of many other projects pegged by the Legislature and Mat-Su Planning for Transportation, a municipal planning organization. The administration is fast-tracking the favored mining access infrastructure, ignoring public processes and ignoring taking care of our current already-built roads and bridges.
— Becky Long
Talkeetna
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