Products and tasks coming out of the successful Denali Commission Transportation Advisory Committee (Committee) meeting December 12-13, 2007 will be the focus of staff work in January 2008.

During the December meeting, the Committee welcomed a new member, Carvel Zimin, Jr., of Naknek, recently appointed by Governor Palin, and expressed their appreciation to the exceptional job Ray Koonuk from Point Hope had done to shape the committee's goals and its operating systems during his term as Committee member.

The Committee selected 37 design and construction projects from the FY 2008 nominations submitted to Denali Commission by federal, state and local government sponsors during the fall 2007 project nomination process.

Over the course of three project nomination/selection cycles, the Committee has developed a balanced and determined view of project priorities. To the extent possible, especially in the roads program, the Committee selected projects for small community streets to improve quality of life, and regional/subregion hubs to improve transportation efficiencies. The Committee also focused on project that will move to completion in the near term.

The pressure to select projects slated to move forward expeditiously is primarily a result of two forces. One is the real need for capital project improvements. Health, quality of life and transportation safety are addressed by making basic improvements to village streets. Communities also need barge landing enhancements to improve fuel and freight transfers, to improve worker safety, and reduce environmental risks. Regardless of the project type, it is critical that projects move through design and to construction as expeditiously as possible.  

The Committee fully understands that there is also a need for patience. Design and construction projects in remote sites take time, sometimes considerably more time than in urban areas. The pressure to get projects completed quickly is often met by an equal force during design of time-consuming fieldwork and during construction, short construction seasons, complex and costly logistics, and sometimes, the small dollar value of contracts.  

Recognizing these forces are at work in rural infrastructure development, the Committee successfully achieved a blend of design and construction projects and a blend of traditional road and waterfront development projects with challenging and/or unique projects that serve the transportation fleet in rural Alaska. The result is a Denali Commission Transportation Improvement Program that creates a stream of high priority projects to communities. The selection meeting also demonstrated the program's success in targeting small, but important projects that other agencies are not able to address with their programs.

Projects ready for construction bidding were prime candidates for project selection, and there are several of these projects in the list for FY 2008, especially in the waterfront development program.

There is also an array of reconnaissance engineering projects selected in FY 2008, primarily in the roads program. Reconnaissance engineering is the correct project development step when the purpose is known, but the routing, soil conditions, environmental issues, community preferences, construction cost estimates and other design and construction factors are unknown. A successful reconnaissance engineering effort provides transportation managers tools to determine if a project is practical and in the interest of a community and/or region.

Another key feature of project selection this year was guidance from the Federal Highway Administration and others that reinforced the need to take on projects where the funding is imminent from other primary sources, or where the Denali Commission is ready to take responsibility for the entire cost of construction. Discussions during project selection helped to refine this element of project selection.  

Three sponsors submitted large design projects that already have substantial funds. Understandably, the sponsors are continuing their efforts to build a construction fund that meets construction estimates. These sponsors were encouraged to use existing funds to complete design and then work with the Committee to prepare a construction-funding package once construction was eminent.  

Several sponsors submitted projects that were close to construction-ready, but did not meet the test of bid-ready with all permits in hand. It turns out that communities often bid out projects without permits and then work with the contractor to negotiate the cost of construction changes resulting from permit stipulations or other conditions. This will not work in the Denali Commission program. FHWA staff attending the meeting confirmed staff assessments that under SAFETEA-LU and Title 23 regulations that guide the Denali Commission Transportation Program, all permits need to be in hand before contract bids can be advertised. This was an important discussion for both staff and sponsors, and Commission staff are committed to doing a better job of explaining this requirements in future years.

With a $1,000,000 project limit per community, the Committee finds that filling funding gaps in large project funding or funding an additive alternative element that clearly meets Denali Commission goals is practical. This has generally resulted in one or two regional port projects and one or two small boat harbor projects each year.  

Another important development this year has been the partnerships with the Community Development Quota (CDQ) fisheries groups. This pattern will expand overtime as CDQ groups and Denali Commission develop common goals for rural infrastructure development.

Finally, a new category of projects, ATV roads, were selected for development in three communities. The projects are reconnaissance engineering, with the expectation that these projects will go to design in the following year. ATV roads are cost-effective alternatives to traditional road projects and are becoming common solutions for a number of saturated soil conditions.  

In the waterfront development program, a boat haul-out facility nomination represents a new approach to boat repairs that were previously completed on harbor grids. Since environmental considerations now make grids impractical in most harbor settings, the boat haul-out approach to routine repairs may make sense for harbors in rural areas with substantial commercial and subsistence fleets. Two projects were selected in this new category.

Tasks associated with the selection process include posting the Committee's FY 2008 project selection list, sending out letters to project sponsors letting them know the status of their nominations and most important, preparing the Financial Assistance Award documents for selected projects.

These documents are the base for recording funding sources, scope of work, timelines and responsibilities of the Denali Commission and sponsor. Several projects selected by the Committee have tentatively been assigned to partner agencies for execution. Assignments are based on the partner having a pool of similar projects underway, or because a partner has a special expertise that is well suited to the project stage of a selected project. Final decisions on project assignments will be completed by January 31.

Another major task for completion in January is posting the program's first comprehensive status report for transportation projects. This will serve as the base for subsequent quarterly project updates.

Finally, program staff will continue work on design and construction projects currently underway, including project management plans for locally managed projects.