This story was originally published by Dermot Cole, Reporting from Alaska.
As I reported here on August 28, the state missed out on more than $50 million in federal funding for highway projects because of the continuing troubles with the handling of transportation planning.
The Anchorage Daily News picked up on the story Sunday, with a report that includes the claim that the Dunleavy administration is pleased that it received $19 million of the $71.4 million sought through the so-called August redistribution process.
“We are actually pleased to have captured this $19 million,” said Shannon McCarthy of the transportation public relations department.
The transportation department may be pleased with itself. I don’t know why.
The state had refused to release any details more than two weeks ago on the $52 million in projects rejected by the federal highway agency.
The Daily News said it received various documents related to this topic through a formal public records request, which seems to be the only approach that gets a response from the Dunleavy administration.
I first saw this spreadsheet Sunday night and I am not qualified to explain exactly what it means, except it appears to show that $35.7 million in projects were removed because they are not ready, while $16.5 million in projects were removed because the State Transportation Improvement Program needs to be amended.
The rejected projects include work on the Dalton Highway, the Knik Goose Bay reconstruction, the Takotna River bridge replacement, access improvements to Pearl Creek Elementary School in Fairbanks, rockfall mitigation on the Seward Highway, Glacier Highway safety improvements in Juneau, and Sheep Creek Road improvements in Fairbanks.
In a legislative presentation in January, Anderson said the 2023 addition of $108 million from August redistribution brought the total amount of federal highway funds successfully obligated to Alaska to $936 million. That was another new record.
“We were very successful in spending money last year and we were rewarded by the federal government with an additional $108 million in transportation funds. So that’s August redistribution we call it and so every year it’s been increasing. It’s really money other states aren’t spending that’s coming to our state.”
“So as long as the rules stay the same we feel like we’re going to be in a good situation to keep doing that in the future,” Anderson told lawmakers on January 25, 2024.
The department’s overall road plan mentions “large August redistributions becoming available year after year. . .”
Not this year.
The Department of Transportation needs to explain what went wrong and what other problems might come up with the complicated process of qualifying for hundreds of millions in federal highway funds.
Dermot Cole has worked as a newspaper reporter, columnist and author in Alaska for more than 40 years. Support his work here.
