AIDEA weighs Acrow modular bridges for Ambler road after Red Dog tour

The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority is studying a modular bridge system for the 211-mile industrial road it wants built to the Ambler Mining District, after board members and staff watched Acrow modular bridges operating at Red Dog Mine in late September. Acrow's system assembles prefabricated steel spans on site, a method the authority, known as AIDEA, says it is examining for installation efficiency, adaptable design and potential time and cost savings on the proposed Ambler Access Project.

Chairman Bill Kendig and Executive Director Randy Ruaro made the trip. AIDEA financed and developed the DeLong Mountain Transportation System, the road and port that already serve Red Dog; that existing infrastructure gives the authority a working model to study before committing to a design for Ambler. The Kotzebue trip also included meetings with Northwest Arctic Borough officials on workforce development and local priorities.

AIDEA estimates the two-lane Ambler road would cost $350 million to build, plus $8 million to $10 million a year in operations and maintenance, and the authority has already approved moving $50 million into a subaccount of its Revolving Fund, its main financing fund, for the project. The release describing the Red Dog visit includes no cost figures tied specifically to the bridge evaluation.

The Bureau of Land Management terminated AIDEA's right-of-way grant in June 2024 through a Record of Decision, its final decision document, that selected the No Action Alternative, the option of not building the road. On Oct. 6, 2025, President Trump approved AIDEA's appeal and directed federal agencies to issue the needed authorizations; BLM reissued the 50-year grant Oct. 21.

NANA Regional Corporation's board withdrew from the project in May 2024, saying its criteria on controlled access, caribou and subsistence protection, and jobs were "insufficiently addressed by AIDEA," and declined to renew AIDEA's access permit across its land. NANA's website shows no statement on the reissuance. Brian Ridley, then chief of Tanana Chiefs Conference, which opposes the road, called the president's decision "a direct affront to the voices of Alaska Native people."

The account of the trip is AIDEA's own and includes no comment from Acrow, Kuna Engineering, NANA or the road's opponents.