Infrastructure
RSSAlaska News tracks infrastructure projects across Alaska, including transportation, utilities, water systems, and public facilities planning and development.
Kodiak council to weigh $72,500 repair after Navy ship tore cleat off Pier II
Kodiak City Council votes Thursday on a $72,500 change order to replace a mooring cleat a Navy ship tore from Pier II in June winds over 100 mph.

Kodiak council to vote on $100,000 for aging wastewater plant electrical controls
Kodiak City Council votes Thursday on $100,000 to replace aging electrical controls at the wastewater plant before equipment failures disrupt operations.

Anchorage pushes for an emergency boat launch on Turnagain Arm after a drowning
After a drowning where rescuers had no way to launch a boat, Anchorage is pushing for federal money to build an emergency water-access point on Turnagain Arm.

Davidoff Street closes Saturday morning for Sitka manhole repair
Sitka will close Davidoff Street between Charteris Street and Halibut Point Road from 5:30 a.m. to about 10 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 15, while crews repair a manhole lid at the Halibut Point Road intersection.

A faulting cable under the Loussac Library would cost the city a permanent easement
Anchorage Assembly will vote Tuesday on letting Chugach Electric replace a failing power cable under Loussac Library at no cost to the city.

Kodiak will homeport the Coast Guard's first Arctic Security Cutters
Kodiak will homeport the Coast Guard's first two Arctic Security Cutters, part of a multibillion-dollar Arctic buildup, with a third headed to Seward.

Anchorage Assembly to weigh $77,500 increase to SRW Homeowner's road contract
Anchorage Assembly votes Tuesday on adding $77,500 to a Hillside road maintenance contract after ice and spring runoff damaged streets in the SRW Homeowner's service area.

A Wasilla runway extension eyes nearby homeowners' land, if the money can be found
A Wasilla runway extension could put nearby homeowners' land in the city's sights — and it may not qualify for the federal money that usually pays for it.

A Kodiak homeowner takes his flooded yard to the borough board
A Kodiak homeowner is fed up with a too-small, often-clogged borough pipe flooding his yard, and he's taking his complaint to the service-area board Tuesday.

King Cove road materials arrive on scene as local workers hit another milestone in the development of a contested project
A barge of equipment for the long-disputed King Cove-Cold Bay Road has reached King Cove, though the fight over the route through Izembek refuge continues.

Anchorage and Fairbanks airports finish swapping PFAS foam out of crash trucks
Anchorage and Fairbanks airports replaced PFAS firefighting foam in their crash trucks with fluorine-free alternatives, cutting PFAS levels up to 99.999% in the tanks.

Anchorage Assembly to take up nearly $954,000 for Merrill Field planning work
Anchorage Assembly votes Tuesday on nearly $954,000 in federal grants for Merrill Field planning work, including a master plan update and required airspace layout revision.

Parks Highway drops to one lane at Nenana's Tanana River Bridge Aug. 18
Are you driving down that specific road, look at the story… Are you not driving down that specific road, probably not about you

Juneau moves to repair Mendenhall riverbank and protect flood-hit homes
Juneau moves to repair 1,300 feet of Mendenhall riverbank to protect flood-hit homes, one of several recovery measures on the agenda after the 2024 flood.

West Petersville Road is washed out, and the creek won't let crews in
West Petersville Road is washed out at Kenny Creek with no reopening date — crews can't start until the water slows down enough to work in.

Rocket Lab wins $266 million DoD contract for suborbital launches from Kodiak spaceport
Rocket Lab won a $266 million Defense Department contract for at least 12 suborbital launches from Kodiak's state-owned spaceport by end of 2028.

Erosion is forcing Alaska to move the Noatak airport two miles west
The Noatak River has eroded to within about 160 feet of the village's airport — its only lifeline — so Alaska is moving the whole airport two miles west.

A sinkhole swallowed a Seward Highway lane, and that lane is closed for a month
A sinkhole ate a northbound lane of the Seward Highway at Potter Marsh. Crews are on it around the clock — and it stays closed until August 24.

In Talkeetna, a debate over whether weather or a bridge is eroding the riverbank
Weather, or a rebuilt railroad bridge? As Talkeetna's bank erodes, one river-watcher says the bridge choked the river — and that's the fixable cause.

The state is drilling test holes for a Seward Highway fix, as a bigger $1.5 billion plan draws fire
The state is rebidding a routine Seward Highway drilling job, but the real fight is a $1.5 billion rebuild up the road that critics call oversized.

Klondike Highway closes overnight near Skagway for rockfall work
The Klondike Highway near Skagway is closed 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. on weeknights for rockfall work. Evening single-lane delays up to 10 minutes until 11.

As Anchorage cements its role as a global cargo hub, the growth is colliding with its neighbors
Anchorage's cargo boom brings nighttime jet noise — and a new study warns the fixes might just shift it from one neighborhood to another, not end it.

Rockslide blocks both lanes of North Tongass Hwy near Ward Cove
A rockslide near Cannery Creek blocked both lanes of North Tongass Highway in Ward Cove on Tuesday morning, cutting the primary road corridor serving Ketchikan's north side. Check Alaska 511 for current status before traveling.

A glacier-dammed lake is emptying into the Salmon River near Hyder
A glacier-dammed lake above Hyder is draining out the bottom of the Salmon Glacier, swelling the Salmon River and threatening the Premier road — like it has almost every summer since 1961.

Deadhorse airport upgrade will fill nearly 79 acres of wetlands with no mitigation
A Deadhorse Airport upgrade at the North Slope's oil-field gateway will fill nearly 79 acres of wetlands — with no mitigation planned, the state says, for lack of any local program to do it through.

Two Seward shipyards win $2.3 million in federal equipment grants
Two Seward shipyards won $2.3 million in federal equipment grants to prepare for Arctic Security Cutters and other Coast Guard vessels homeporting there.

A landslide cut rail service to Denali after record Talkeetna rain
A landslide from record July rain cut off Alaska Railroad service to Denali north of Talkeetna, in a corridor already under a flood-and-erosion emergency.

Mat-Su commission backs the $9 million road route over the $30 million one
Mat-Su's planning commission backed a $9 million southern road route over a northern one pegged at up to $31 million, overruling a staff recommendation. The assembly decides next.

A Larsen Bay spillway is 'nearing failure' and unfunded in Kodiak's list
A spillway supplying Larsen Bay's water and power is "nearing failure," but the $1.2 million fix isn't funded and ranks sixth, in Kodiak's out-year pile.

The 5th and 6th avenue rebuild just hit $370 million — and even planners are flagging "scope creep"
Anchorage's 5th and 6th avenue rebuild just hit $370 million with no clear way to pay for it — and even the city's planners are flagging scope creep.

Senate bill would fast-track Army Corps engineering for Juneau's glacial flooding
A Senate bill would let the Army Corps of Engineers skip study steps and move straight to designing a permanent fix for Juneau's glacial lake flooding, which threatens nearly 1,900 homes each summer.

A protected Potter Marsh hillside faces access questions at an Aug. 10 hearing
A 303-acre hillside feeding Potter Marsh is permanently protected, so the debate now is over access — where trails and parking go, and which neighborhood streets take the traffic. A 20-year plan gets a hearing Aug. 10.

Alaska's first big AI data center clears a hurdle on the North Slope
A company wants to burn North Slope gas on-site to run AI computing near Deadhorse — turning 50 years of stranded gas into power, if the financing, customers and gas contract ever show up.

Anchorage seeks 50 acres of JBER land for a waste-to-energy plant
Anchorage is asking Congress for about 50 acres of JBER land next to the landfill for a waste-to-energy plant, with the request riding in this year's defense bill.

Coast Guard asks Homer to accept transfer of cutter support building
Homer City Council votes Aug. 24 on accepting ownership of a Coast Guard cutter support building. • The ordinance does not specify maintenance costs or operational details the city would assume. • Residents can testify at the 6 p.m. public hearing.

A decade after a plan promised lower energy costs, Bering Strait villages are still studying the problem
A decade after a regional plan promised lower energy costs, Bering Strait villages are still studying the problem — as Kawerak seeks contractors to assess the diesel infrastructure keeping 20 communities running.

Second Eagle River road contract in weeks draws just one bid
An Eagle River brush-disposal contract worth up to $1.16 million drew one bidder, the second sole-bid road contract in the same service area in weeks. The Assembly votes Tuesday.

Fairbanks: Old Chena Ridge Road and Transfer Site access close July 27 for season
Chena Small Tracts Road is already closed for the 2026 season for roundabout construction, and Old Chena Ridge Road plus the Transfer Site access will follow on July 27, remaining shut through the end of the construction season.

King Cove finally gets its road, and the lawsuits are still coming
King Cove's long-fought road to the Cold Bay airport has its final federal permit, with construction due in 30 days. Three lawsuits over the refuge land swap are still pending.

New law ties Anchorage's federal housing grant to how fast it builds
Anchorage's biggest federal housing grant will now rise or fall with how fast the city builds, raising the question of whether it'll be punished for constraints it can't control.
