Three Merbok-damaged stretches of the Nome-Council Highway are finally getting permanent repairs

Three sections of the Nome-Council Highway torn up by ex-typhoon Merbok in 2022 are now funded to be permanently rebuilt. The Federal Highway Administration is putting roughly $2.4 million toward the work, drawn from its emergency fund for disaster-damaged roads, with the repairs expected to run through early 2028.

The three stretches, all within about 15 miles of Nome, will get rebuilt roadbed and better drainage, and one section will get added armor stone to help it stand up to future storms. The state is chipping in a smaller share, bringing the total to about $2.7 million.

The work comes nearly four years after the storm. Merbok slammed into western Alaska in September 2022, battering some 1,300 miles of coastline and 40 communities, destroying homes and doing heavy damage to the subsistence infrastructure that many of those communities depend on. Since then, federal disaster aid has flowed into the region — tens of millions of dollars for rebuilding roads, buildings and utilities, and millions more directly to families who lost their homes. This highway money is separate from that, aimed specifically at the storm's damage to the road between Nome and Council.