The state wants $293M to rebuild 5th and 6th, but the funding isn't settled

The state is asking Anchorage's transportation planners to set aside $293 million for a major rebuild of 5th and 6th avenues downtown, even though where the money will come from remains unsettled. The AMATS Policy Committee votes on the request Thursday.

The work would split into two segments: about $262.5 million to rebuild roughly a mile of each avenue from L Street to Gambell Street, and $30.5 million for the stretch east from Gambell to the Airport Heights intersection. The state's Department of Transportation wants the long-range plan updated to split the project in two, add drainage work, and set those two figures. They are planning-level estimates in a long-range plan, not an appropriation or a commitment to spend.

The funding question is the open one. "The project cost is expected to be covered by additional funding above and beyond the historical funding provided by DOT&PF within the AMATS area," wrote Aaron Jongenelen, the AMATS executive director, in his memo to the committee, which does not identify where that additional money would come from.

There is also a gap the memo does not explain. The $262.5 million it proposes is $52.5 million less than the $315 million placeholder that DOT&PF's own attached cost estimate recommends holding. The memo does not address the difference.

The rebuild has been growing for a while. An earlier Alaska News article on the corridor reported a $370 million estimate with an unclear funding source, and planning staff had flagged scope creep; the prior funding program had treated 5th and 6th work mainly as signals, lighting and pedestrian-safety upgrades.

The stated goal is to ready the two state-owned arterials for the city to take over, rebuilt as coordinated downtown corridors "suitable for long-term Municipal ownership and operation," with completion and municipal acceptance targeted for fall 2032. Whether 5th and 6th stay a one-way couplet is due to be decided between 2027 and early 2028.