New $864,000 federal obligation for Homer's Kachemak Bay Drive tsunami escape route

Homer's designated tsunami evacuation route out of the Spit is headed for reconstruction. The Federal Highway Administration has obligated about $1.17 million to the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities to rebuild Kachemak Bay Drive from milepost 0 to 3.5, according to USAspending records, across four award entries. The largest, $864,000, was signed Sept. 11. The $196,495 entry dates from January 2025.

The records list the assistance type as "FORMULA GRANT (A)," money distributed by formula rather than competed for. The award period runs through Dec. 15, 2027. The $864,000 comes from the PROTECT program, short for Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient, and Cost-Saving Transportation, and carries no state share. The two January 2025 entries come from the general federal-aid program and each carry one.

The project covers the stretch from the Sterling Highway intersection to the East End Road intersection. The award description says the work will strengthen and protect the designated tsunami evacuation route by raising and widening the roadway to improve motorized and non-motorized passage. Roadside hardware, drainage improvements and utility work are listed as possible elements.

The city's tsunami guidance directs evacuees from the Homer Spit to travel inland on Homer Spit Road, turn east onto Kachemak Drive and continue to East End Road. The federal records call the road Kachemak Bay Drive. A city transportation planning document identifies Kachemak Drive as one of three tsunami evacuation routes in Homer, marked with blue and white evacuation signs.

Alaska DOT&PF listed the project in the 2024-2027 Statewide Transportation Improvement Program with $6.65 million programmed, describing a funding mix that matches Federal Highway Administration PROTECT formula money with Surface Transportation Block Grant funds to reach a 100 percent federal share. A 2024 STIP amendment records $480,000 in fiscal year 2024 PROTECT funding for the work.

The fourth award entry lists $0. It was signed the same day as two others and carries the same end date, recording no obligation rather than a missing sum.