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Lawmakers complete tour of possible DOT projects

by Ashton Goodell
Thursday, October 1, 2009

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Transportation costs are a huge part of the state budget and lawmakers say it's hard to know where to cut it off.

So they want to get road and aviation projects into gear early to plan for next year's big ticket items. The idea is to create a road map of what's needed and what the state can fund.

All the projects -- big or small -- the Department of Transportation says you have to see to really understand.

Legislators from the Transportation Committee took a tour of the road and aviation trouble spots throughout the state. They saw the worn roads and deep ruts.

"So we are following up on ruts in the road, heaves in the highway -- all different types of things that are here in Southcentral and also in all different parts of the state," committee Chair Rep. Peggy Wilson, R-Wrangell, said.

The tour confirmed what they already knew: worn roads and runways are a problem, and there's not enough money to fix it all.

The idea of the discussion between lawmakers and DOT is to figure out which transportation projects should take priority.

"Commissioner, I'm not trying to make it sound like the department isn't doing its job. It's just that when you add this up it's going to be like 11-ty kabillion dollars, which even the State of Alaska doesn't have," Rep. Mike Doogan, D-Anchorage, said.

Much of it is maintenance that falls through the cracks -- small airports need to resurface landing strips and the ships traveling the nation's only marine highway need replacing.

And DOT says if it doesn't start soon cost will keep going up.

"Some of those vessels are going to be expensive and need to be replaced," said Jim Beedle, deputy commissioner of marine highways. "If we don't get it started soon we are going to have four vessels that we need to take care of now, and now we are talking billions instead of hundreds of millions."

As for the roads, DOT says it needs at least $8 billion for major road projects. Most of that would go toward making the highway safety corridors safer, including repairing ruts on the Glenn Highway and straightening the Seward Highway.

But DOT isn't quite sure of how to minimize the dangers on the Seward. Officials say it's an expensive project with a lot of restrictions.

"And it's millions and millions and millions of dollars," DOT Commissioner Leo von Scheben said. "So we are going to have to work in the interim on some small fixes: turnouts, rumble strips, guard rail, maybe smoothing out a couple of curves -- even that will take millions of dollars. But nothing like it would to get a four-lane divided highway."

They say a lot of what they're doing works, but won't much longer. Highway fatalities are down this year. Now the idea is to keep it that way.

Several members are new to the committee, so this tour that concluded Thursday was meant to help them get ahead before the session starts.

Contact Ashton Goodell at agoodell@ktuu.com