Alaska DOT&PF reopens comment on four-year transportation plan through Nov. 20

The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities opened a second, seven-day public comment period Friday on its draft four-year transportation plan, after rewriting large parts of it. Comments are due Nov. 20.

The 2027-2030 Statewide Transportation Improvement Program, known as the STIP, is the federally required program that determines which federally funded highways, bridges, ferries, transit, trail and safety projects receive money through 2030. It must be fiscally constrained, listing only projects with funding reasonably expected to be available. The department says the STIP is not a construction schedule, and it does not include airport projects. The new plan would replace the current 2024-2027 STIP, which was approved in March 2024.

The first comment period opened Sept. 14 and was set to close Oct. 29, according to the department's press release, on a draft that listed at least $7.74 billion for roads, bridges and ferries. A state public notice later extended that period, which Alaska News reported on as it neared its close, through Nov. 2.

The department said Volumes 3 and 4 were substantially rewritten and contain largely new material. Its STIP revision records identify Volume 3 as the engagement summary and Volume 4 as project selection. Volume 2 holds project-level updates from department project managers.

The department said the revisions came out of work with Metropolitan Planning Organizations, federal partners and its project managers, as well as feedback from the first comment period. The package includes changes made in response to those first-round comments and the department's responses to them.

The department said this round gives the public a chance to review the updated material before it finalizes the plan and sends it to the Federal Highway Administration and Federal Transit Administration for review and approval.

Federal reviewers "try to target a 30-day turnaround time for their approval, but that fluctuates depending on their available resources," Deputy Commissioner Katherine Keith told the Senate Transportation Committee on Sept. 24.

The revised draft is posted on the department's STIP page. The department takes comments through Nov. 20 by email, voicemail, text, mail and the Alaska Relay at 711.