AMATS committee kept Seward Highway project in draft plan after staff asked to remove it

The AMATS Policy Committee voted Oct. 15 to release Anchorage's draft 2052 Transportation Plan for public comment with the Safer Seward Highway project still in it, draft minutes show. AMATS staff had asked the committee to remove the project first.

The plan from AMATS, short for Anchorage Metropolitan Area Transportation Solutions, guides road, transit and trail spending for the Anchorage Bowl and Chugiak-Eagle River for more than 20 years. Public comment on the draft closes Dec. 3, according to an Assembly memorandum. AMATS must finish the plan by Dec. 29 to avoid a potential freeze on new federal funding, June committee minutes show.

AMATS Executive Director Aaron Jongenelen said a letter from the state transportation department put the total project cost at $1.598 billion, while plan tables in that same letter added up to $1.638 billion. The parent project appeared at $116 million in those tables but $121 million in the letter's four-year funding list. Jongenelen said he emailed his questions to the department the day before the meeting.

Chair Katherine Keith, deputy commissioner of the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, called that a quick turnaround. She said she never received the email and wanted written answers for the record. Most of the gaps, she said, reflect differences between a long-range plan and the state's four-year funding list.

Public Works Director Kent Kohlhase moved to release the draft using the state's tables. Keith restated the motion to include the Seward Highway projects and a new 5th and 6th Avenue reconstruction, which staff said it no longer wanted removed. It passed without objection. The vote lists Stage 3 of the highway project, from Windy Corner to Rainbow, as both a Transportation Improvement Program item and a short-term project in the plan's timeline. Keith said Stage 3 is about $236 million, more than the state would normally program in one year, and is not yet in the state's four-year window.

The draft plan counts on federal money above the usual share for both projects.

The committee voted 3-2 in July to put the project in the plan, July minutes show, with Assembly members Daniel Volland and Erin Baldwin Day voting no. Volland said the project's cost had grown from about $694 million in the 2024 plan to $1.4 billion in its draft environmental assessment, and warned it would significantly reduce other Anchorage funding for two decades. Lauren Little of the state transportation department said the intent is to pay for it entirely with federal money.

The Policy Committee has final authority to approve the plan. The Assembly reviews the draft and adopts recommendations, starting Nov. 17. The committee is scheduled to consider approval of the Oct. 15 minutes Thursday, Nov. 19.