AMATS staff urge dropping Safer Seward Highway and 5th and 6th rebuild from draft plan

Anchorage Metropolitan Area Transportation Solutions staff want two major road projects cut from the draft 2052 Metropolitan Transportation Plan before its 45-day public comment period starts. The AMATS Policy Committee, which holds final authority over the plan, votes Oct. 15.

The two projects are the Safer Seward Highway, from Mile 98.5 to Mile 118, and the reconstruction of 5th and 6th avenues downtown. Senior Planner Rhiannon Brown wrote in an Oct. 1 memo to the AMATS Technical Advisory Committee that the state's highway figures do not match AMATS's own numbers. She also wrote that no document shows where the downtown project's funding would come from. State law requires the plan to be fiscally constrained, meaning revenue must cover every listed project.

The advisory committee recommended releasing the plan, with no member opposed. It also recommended removing the two projects if the state Department of Transportation and Public Facilities does not reconcile its figures and supply funding details. A department representative said projects left out of the plan cannot use federal money.

Brown's memo lists six discrepancies with the state's draft 2027-2030 transportation improvement program, known as the STIP. The STIP's Seward Highway project runs from Mile 98.5 to 112, and its project names and descriptions differ from what AMATS received. For the project's first four stages of eight, the STIP lists $981.1 million. The draft plan lists $815.9 million for the same stages. Stage 4 alone is $465 million in the STIP, compared with $343.6 million in the plan. Adding later stages, the STIP totals $180 million more than the plan's $1.596 billion. The STIP also includes a $41 million preconstruction phase never provided to AMATS, with $14.5 million of that already obligated.

The draft plan lists $314.5 million for the 5th and 6th avenue rebuild from L Street to Gambell Street, approved 5-0 by the Policy Committee in August. It adds $30.5 million for the stretch from Gambell to Airport Heights Drive, for $345 million total. "This is crucial as the funding is anticipated to be above and beyond the historical amount that comes into the AMATS area," Brown wrote. The plan books $12.5 million in fiscal year 2027, $16.5 million in 2029 and $285.5 million in 2030. Anchorage Mayor Suzanne LaFrance told the Assembly Aug. 4 that her administration had worked with the department to direct $260 million more in federal funds to the project.

The Policy Committee voted 3-2 in July to add the highway project back into the plan. LaFrance's designee voted yes, but LaFrance later called her support conditional. Assembly member Daniel Volland voted no. He wanted the state to answer public comments first.

Policy Committee comment goes to [email protected] at least 48 hours before a meeting. Comment on the draft STIP runs through Oct. 29.