Legislature(2007 - 2008)CAPITOL 17
02/05/2008 01:00 PM House TRANSPORTATION
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| Overview: Dot Central Region | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
HOUSE TRANSPORTATION STANDING COMMITTEE
February 5, 2008
1:04 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Representative Kyle Johansen, Chair
Representative Mark Neuman, Vice Chair
Representative Anna Fairclough
Representative Craig Johnson
Representative Mike Doogan
Representative Woodie Salmon
MEMBERS ABSENT
Representative Wes Keller
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
OVERVIEW: DOT CENTRAL REGION
- HEARD
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
No previous action to report
WITNESS REGISTER
GORDON KEITH, Director
Central Region
Department of Transportation & Public Facilities
Anchorage, Alaska
ACTION NARRATIVE
CHAIR KYLE JOHANSEN called the House Transportation Standing
Committee meeting to order at 1:04:52 PM. Representatives
Salmon, Doogan, Fairclough, and Johansen were present at the
call to order. Representatives Neuman and Johnson arrived as
the meeting was in progress. Other legislators present were
Representatives Buch and Edgmon.
^Overview: DOT Central Region
1:05:03 PM
CHAIR JOHANSEN announced that the only order of business would
be a presentation by the Central Region director of the
Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (DOT&PF). He
informed members the committee would hear from the Northern
Region director on Thursday and the Southeast Region director
the following week. In addition, he planned to hold a few more
meetings on the Alaska Marine Highway System.
1:06:11 PM
GORDON KEITH, Regional Director, Central Region, Department of
Transportation, Anchorage, Alaska, introduced himself and began
his presentation, as follows:
Chairman Johansen and members of the Transportation
Committee, thank you for letting me get on your
schedule and take your time to give an overview of the
Central Region. I, too, think it's a valuable
exchange. The more you know how our business runs and
the more I know what you want out of the Department of
Transportation, the better.
I'll just give you a little brief introduction of
myself. I am a 35-year employee of the Department of
Transportation and I'm a professional engineer. As a
point of interest, my father started working for the
Alaska Road Commission in 1921 building the Richardson
Trail, so this truly is the family business here.
As region director, I supervise all the planning,
design, construction and maintenance in the region and
that is in the modes of highways and aviation and,
st
until January 1 of this year, that also included
facilities. Facilities [are] now a statewide
function.
The regions are the production side of the [indisc.]
for the Department of Transportation. The regions do
all of the environmental documents. They do the
design work. They do the construction administration.
Bridge design is the only function out of the
department that is a statewide function. I'll call
your attention to the first exhibit we have, which is
a map of the Central Region - the Central Region
headquarters. My office is in Anchorage and sometimes
people think that Anchorage is the Central Region but
the Central Region is one heck of a lot bigger than
that. Area-wise it includes Anchorage, the Mat-Su
Valley, the Kenai Peninsula, Kodiak, Bristol Bay, the
Alaska Peninsula, the Kuskokwim Delta, and the
Aleutians and the Pribilofs.
1:10:09 PM
MR. KEITH continued:
If you turn to the next exhibit, there's another
graphical picture of the Central Region and, to put it
in perspective, we all know this is a massive state
and Central Region is no different than the state as a
total and let me give you as a point of reference,
Unalaska, Dutch Harbor, [are] in the Central Region.
It costs the better part of a $1,000 bill for me to
fly out there and you can fly to Seattle and get there
cheaper and quicker than flying to Unalaska, Dutch
Harbor. It's actually, to go out for a final
inspection, it's a two-day trip if the weather is
right and just about every time I go out there it
turns out to be a three or four day trip because of
the weather.
1:11:02 PM
REPRESENTATIVE NEUMAN commented that Mr. Keith is the most
responsible, informative, and intelligent person he has ever
dealt with in state government. He then asked how the Central
Region compares to other areas.
MR. KEITH said the Northern Region actually has more lane miles
than the Central Region. Many of those lane miles are very
rural and include gravel roads. He noted that the Central
Region has more miles of road to maintain than at least half of
the eastern states in the U.S. The department is probably the
only transportation department in any state that deals with
highways, airports and public facilities. In most states,
buildings are owned and run by the administration and airports
are owned by airport authorities.
1:13:12 PM
REPRESENTATIVE DOOGAN asked for a description of how DOT&PF's
organization works, and whether the regional directors are
responsible to the separate deputy commissioners for the areas
of their function, such as to the aviation deputy commissioner
for aviation projects.
MR. KEITH replied in the mid 1980s DOT&PF followed a typical
organizational chart with everything coming to headquarters.
That organization was seen as unresponsive to the people. For
example, staff in Juneau could not understand Anchorage's
transportation problems, let alone the problems in Hooper Bay.
As a result, DOT&PF became regionalized by function. He does
not report to the deputy commissioners; he reports directly to
the commissioner. The deputy commissioners of marine highways,
aviation, and highways set policy. He said he seeks their
advice and counsel on all projects in his region.
1:15:21 PM
MR. KEITH returned to his presentation:
When you look at that map - and you see that by
highways we have the Parks Highway. There's a
misprint here. There is no milepost 0 on the Parks
Highway. It's milepost 36 to 163. All of the Seward
Highway, all of the Sterling Highway, all of the Glenn
Highway are major roads. We have 109 rural airports,
six harbors, and it amounts to 5,400 paved miles of
roadway and 975 miles of gravel road and about 300
bridges.
From here I'd like to go to - in your package I have
the projects and what I want to do with the projects
here is first I want to give you what we call a
takeaway. These are something that you might want to
even keep in your office. It's all of the projects
that we're working on in Central Region. So let me
start, if you will, with the construction projects
first.
1:16:43 PM
CHAIR JOHANSEN asked Mr. Keith how the six harbors differ from
those that were transferred to local entities.
MR. KEITH said DOT&PF is still trying to convey those harbors.
CHAIR JOHANSEN asked if the intent is to move them.
MR. KEITH said yes. They are under state ownership but DOT&PF
would like to transfer ownership to the local communities.
1:17:27 PM
REPRESENTATIVE NEUMAN asked Mr. Keith to identify the projects
that were vetoed last year during his presentation and the
amount of funds needed.
1:18:08 PM
MR. KEITH said he will try to recall all of them as he proceeds.
He then continued his presentation, as follows:
So under the construction projects, these are actually
construction projects from 2007, 2008, 2009. Projects
don't have a life of one year so we have what are
called carryover projects that are projects that were
advertised in 2007. They were 2007 money. For
whatever reason they are a multi-year project whether
they were a complex large project. We have one in
here on the Glenn Highway at Picks Creek that is a $30
million project that is only half done or, in some
cases, the project started late in the season so that
it isn't finished. So these projects represent all of
the projects that you are going to see from 2007,
2008, 2009.
It amounts to 89 projects and if you turn to the next
sheet, we thought this would be helpful. We were
encouraging the other regional directors to do the
same thing. We've broken it down by community so you
can look at your community and you can say what kind
of work do we have going on in Chignik and you can
quickly identify how many projects and how many
dollars in Chignik in highways, aviation and
facilities and then go to the cross reference, which
goes into more detail about the project.
I don't know unless it's the pleasure of the committee
that it is necessary to go through each individual
project. We could do that or if you have a question
on a particular project I can try to answer it.
1:20:18 PM
REPRESENTATIVE DOOGAN asked for the meaning of the acronym
"HSIP."
MR. KEITH replied HSIP represents the Highway Safety Improvement
Program. That program identifies areas with high accident rates
and those areas are nominated statewide for consideration. The
most worthy projects are selected. Projects compete based on
need and on the proposed remedies to the problems. After the
project is completed, follow-up occurs to determine whether the
remedy worked.
1:21:27 PM
REPRESENTATIVE FAIRCLOUGH concurred with Representative Neuman's
opinion of Mr. Keith and thanked him for his responsiveness to
legislators. She noted DOT&PF is on schedule for the Glenn
Highway upgrade, for which an additional $700,000 was
appropriated last year for lighting.
MR. KEITH affirmed that DOT&PF is on schedule but the contractor
is working more slowly on it than he had hoped. All of the
conduit and bases have not been installed yet but DOT&PF will
continue to push them. He believed the poles were already
ordered and the project would be completed this summer.
1:22:48 PM
REPRESENTATIVE FAIRCLOUGH asked about the Eagle River Loop road
project and remarked that jogging on that road has created
safety problems. She questioned whether that construction
project is on target.
MR. KEITH said DOT&PF is on target. The project will be
advertised in late February or early March. He will be speaking
about road rut problems during his presentation.
1:23:46 PM
REPRESENTATIVE FAIRCLOUGH questioned whether DOT&PF knows the
facility asset total cost invested in the state and whether it
has a number for the backlog on maintenance for those facilities
and the highway system.
MR. KEITH said he could not answer that question at this time.
1:24:25 PM
REPRESENTATIVE FAIRCLOUGH said it is her understanding that
DOT&PF had to assess all of Alaska's roadways under federal
highways requirements and that those roadways must be monetized
on an asset basis to project depreciation and replacement costs
at a specific time.
MR. KEITH said the Municipality of Anchorage (MOA) is actively
engaged in that process, not DOT&PF.
1:25:06 PM
REPRESENTATIVE FAIRCLOUGH asked Mr. Keith to follow-up with an
answer about why the state is not involved or the pace at which
it is involved.
1:25:11 PM
CHAIR JOHANSEN reminded members to ask their questions about
specific projects when Mr. Keith discusses them. He then told
the committee that Rodney Dial was on line to answer public
safety questions.
1:25:50 PM
REPRESENTATIVE JOHNSON referred to handouts entitled Funded and
Designed, Partially or Full, and Current and Expected and noted
duplication [of project listings]. He asked why [a project]
would be listed in both places.
MR. KEITH said to the extent that work is delayed and
construction is still in the design phase, the project would
still be in there.
REPRESENTATIVE JOHNSON asked if the dollar figure would be the
same.
MR. KEITH said it would.
REPRESENTATIVE JOHNSON affirmed the project is still in the
design phased but asked if one would not necessarily mean the
other is not advancing.
MR. KEITH said that is correct. He said he would discuss the
design handout to clarify the design package.
1:27:23 PM
CHAIR JOHANSEN asked for an explanation of the difference
between an Anchorage Metropolitan Area Transportation System
(AMATS) and non-AMATS project. He thought a chunk of the pie
was pulled out of the Statewide Transportation Improvement
Program (STIP) for AMATS projects and asked for clarification.
MR. KEITH said AMATS is a metropolitan planning organization,
which is federally required for any city with a population over
50,000. That organization distributes federal aid dollars. The
AMATS allocation is for all roads not considered to be part of
the National Highway System. Any Anchorage roads considered to
be part of the National Highway System have their own funding
source.
1:28:55 PM
REPRESENTATIVE NEUMAN noted the Matanuska-Susitna Borough does
not have a metropolitan planning system yet its population is
over 50,000. He asked how that is handled.
MR. KEITH said he has met with the Mat-Su Borough to discuss
that question. The federal requirement also includes a core
density so the population must be located in distinct areas.
The Mat-Su Borough's population does not meet that description
yet. He said he has shown Mat-Su Borough officials that if it
was allocated its equivalent in AMATS funds, the Borough would
receive less money.
1:30:04 PM
REPRESENTATIVE JOHNSON asked for a point of clarification
regarding the three designations of the Seward Highway. He
asked whether one should conclude that the Seward Highway is
designated as the new Seward Highway.
MR. KEITH explained the road south of O'Malley and Potter Marsh
is considered to all be the Seward Highway. Between 36th and
O'Malley there is both the old and new Seward Highway. In the
area where the old Seward Highway and new Seward Highway
parallel each other, they are differentiated. In the area where
there is no parallel road, it is just the Seward Highway.
1:31:22 PM
MR. KEITH continued his presentation, as follows:
So I just wanted to make a point on the design one
there. This listing amounts to 159 projects. That
gives you an idea of how many projects we're working
on at any given time. These are the projects that - a
real project meaning a project manager has been
assigned and money has been programmed for it, whether
it is to begin the environmental document or scoping
or whatever it is. So above this there - you may have
heard the term "the needs list." The needs list is
the universe of all the projects wanted statewide or,
in our case, region wide. These are projects that
have made the cut in priority to the point that they
are real projects and have money programmed. If you
look through the list you can see some intelligence
there to it like if you look at any of them, I'm going
to look at page 1 at the bottom of AMATS project
Abbott Road Rehabilitation where it says estimated
costs and it says "to be determined." That means this
project is so new that the project manager whose been
assigned it hasn't even come up with a good figure to
estimate from. Estimated bid date to be determined -
once again, that means it is not on any kind of a
spending list right now. When you look at other ones
like - I'm just looking at page 1 again where
estimated cost ... for Akiak airport construction,
$4.9 million that means it's developed enough, the
scope of work that they can have an estimate for it.
You'll see some where they have an estimate but they
have "estimated bid date to be determined." That
means it's not in the STIP for a highway and it's not
in the aviation spending plan. So that's some of the
intelligence to looking at this here.
1:33:44 PM
REPRESENTATIVE DOOGAN asked for an explanation of the difference
between total projects and grand total.
MR. KEITH said 23 communities and 118 projects are listed. The
difference between 118 and 156 is that some projects may not be
germane to only one community.
1:34:47 PM
REPRESENTATIVE FAIRCLOUGH further explained the 118 is added to
the 33 aviation projects and the 5 facility projects, which
brings the total project count to 156.
1:34:58 PM
CHAIR JOHANSEN expressed confusion that a previous DOT&PF
testifier said the plans for $200 million in projects are
complete so the projects are ready to be built. He asked
whether the projects Mr. Keith displayed are in addition to
those projects.
MR. KEITH said DOT&PF's goal is to not move projects forward if
there is no reason to believe that funds will be available to
build them. He stated the projects [he displayed] are projects
planned to move ahead. Money has been programmed for those
projects. He added DOT&PF does not have a lot of projects
sitting on the shelf for many reasons. Federal requirements
mandate projects to begin construction or purchasing rights-of-
way within 10 years of being planned. In such a case, the state
would have to repay the federal government for the original
funds expended.
1:37:22 PM
REPRESENTATIVE NEUMAN asked Mr. Keith if the Central Region's
barebones operating request is $35 million.
MR. KEITH replied it is $38 million.
REPRESENTATIVE NEUMAN asked what amount was requested in the
Governor's budget.
MR. KEITH said Central Region is doing pretty well and he would
discuss that further in his presentation.
1:38:31 PM
REPRESENTATIVE FAIRCLOUGH expressed concern about looking at new
projects for new facility construction. She was told during a
University of Alaska subcommittee hearing that deferred
maintenance costs for university facilities total about $700
million. She pointed out the Central Region has quite a few
state-owned facilities so she is concerned about deferred
maintenance costs for that area.
MR. KEITH told members that is the reason the commissioner
designated facilities as a statewide function. By raising
awareness, DOT&PF hopes to catch up on deferred maintenance.
The state has a very large backlog of deferred maintenance,
including over $100 million of American Disabilities Act (ADA)
requirements. DOT&PF has only received a few hundred thousand
dollars per year to address that.
1:40:17 PM
REPRESENTATIVE FAIRCLOUGH said the University of Alaska
requested $12 million to handle a maintenance log that appears
to need $60 to $70 million per year for six or seven years.
With reduced oil production down the line, seven years of catch-
up time seems shortsighted, she opined.
1:40:51 PM
CHAIR JOHANSEN said everyone recognizes deferred maintenance
problems around the state but he believes in the need to balance
those costs with new projects. Maintenance cannot stand still
for seven or more years. He remarked the Governor's deferred
maintenance request is large.
MR. KEITH said he will discuss that balance during his
presentation.
1:41:31 PM
REPRESENTATIVE FAIRCLOUGH said she is not implying that no funds
should be spent on new projects because she believes in economic
growth opportunities in transportation to open up regions to
resource development, employment opportunities, and reduced
maintenance by connecting communities. She said she feels the
need to "toll the bell" regarding how far behind the state is in
addressing its deferred maintenance needs before it incurs new
operational costs.
1:42:06 PM
CHAIR JOHANSEN said he heard the governor state last night that
transportation is one of her spending priorities.
1:42:24 PM
MR. KEITH returned to his presentation, as follows:
With that I'd like to talk about some of the problems
of Central Region and I gave a lot of thought to this
issue. I have some of the same problems that the
other regions do, such as funding, the problem we have
with recruiting and retaining, particularly engineers,
but professional staff in general. That will be
somewhat in my discussion here but the overriding
thing I want to come across with Central Region is
number one, Central Region has 64 percent of the
population there and three of the fastest growing
communities in the state and that would be the Mat-Su,
the [Municipality] of Anchorage, number three I'm told
is Fairbanks and then finally the third out of the
fourth for Central Region is the Kenai Peninsula. It
is not just that we have the population. When you
have the population by definition, we have the cars,
it means we have the vehicle miles traveled and from
that if you look at the exhibit there showing Central
Region where population growth outruns road
improvements, the planning staff put together a little
draft here and that's showing that with this high
population growth and a limited road network, we have
two main problems and that is congestion, accidents
and ruts.
Congestion actually is the root problem and the two
results are accidents and ruts in the pavement. So
I'd like to go through that a little bit and I'll give
a little background here. If you turn to the next
page, which is actually an exhibit which is called
Central Region State of Alaska DOT Top 10 Congested
Bottlenecks, it was just by chance that the Federal
Highway Administration asked us to come up with our 10
most congested areas.
About the same time we were finding out about - it
actually was caused by a series of accidents on the
Seward Highway with deaths associated. In our efforts
to try to get a hold of what are we going to do about
these areas that have recurring serious accidents with
bodily harm and fatalities and I had my traffic
section start gathering together where are these
patterns of accidents and just at the same time these
separate things crossed my desk. ... I guess it's not
world shaking but it is sort of amazing that the areas
with the most congested roads are the ones that turn
out to be the traffic safety corridors with high
accident rates.
I marked on my sheet what I'm describing here with the
bottlenecks. If you go down the line there, you can
see four of the highway traffic safety corridors are
here. Number 3 is the Parks Highway, Wasilla to Big
Lake. And you can see the V divided by C means that
the volume, the actual measured volume we get there
divided by the capacity, in general terms, the
capacity of a rural two-lane highway is about 12,000
cars ADT - average daily traffic a day, so when it
exceeds that, and in this case it exceeds it by 26
percent, first the level of service goes down.
The level of service is a traffic engineering thing.
Level of service A would be you are out on the highway
free flowing. You can't see another car. You can
make turns, stops, speed up, slow down, independent,
you know. And then it goes down along the way where
you have to be more watchful when you're making
traffic maneuvers and what not and, eventually, when
you get down to level of service F, it's gridlock.
Between - when you start to get in that level of
service E, level of service F, people - not all people
- but people, more reckless people, take chances.
They try to pass when they shouldn't. The consequence
when they do that often ends up with an accident. If
you're out on a highway, once again, it's level
service A and if you spin out or something like that
the consequence probably isn't that bad but, when the
highway is just packed with cars, somebody is going to
get hurt and somebody is going to die. That's what
we're seeing here with these high congested roadways
that manifest itself in severe accidents and deaths.
1:48:15 PM
REPRESENTATIVE JOHNSON asked about the situation at Tudor and
Elmore that has only been open for two months, but is a problem
area. It is only a matter of time before lives will be lost.
He questioned whether that project can be moved up the list
without waiting for a history of accidents and deaths.
MR. KEITH said the good news is that the Legislature has already
appropriated money for that project and the design is almost
complete. It has been designed as a separate project and will
be constructed this summer.
REPRESENTATIVE JOHNSON asked if the bridge will be torn down.
MR. KEITH said it will not. DOT&PF does not believe the utility
corridor in one quadrant will be a problem either.
1:50:13 PM
MR. KEITH explained that DOT&PF is still looking at it and the
problem is that the traffic exceeds the stacking capacity for
the left turn pocket on Tudor. DOT&PF is waiting for the
college session to begin and traffic patterns to settle in.
1:50:52 PM
REPRESENTATIVE JOHNSON asked what that has done to traffic at
Lake Otis and Tudor.
MR. KEITH replied:
Through the chair, when we get done with Elmore and
Dowling Road extended east from Lake Otis to Elmore,
and once again, thank you for the funding for that.
That's another state funded project, another success
story.
Elmore - let me drop back to that one. That was a
general obligation bond so we didn't have to go
through all the federal rigmarole. We were able to
move that project ahead much faster than a federal aid
project. We were able to get the environmental
document, get the design done in two years, get it
constructed in two years, and in four years we have an
open and operational facility, whereas if that had
been a federal aid project, well I'm not even sure we
could have built it as a federal aid project because
there is park land involved and federal aid section 4F
says you can't go through park land unless there's not
other reasonable alternatives. But even if you could
get through there, it would take seven or eight years
so we probably cut anywhere from two to four years off
the delivery of that.
But Dowling East tracks the same way. You folks
appropriated the money. We're just about done with
the design. It took us two years. We're going to
advertise it in the next couple of months. We hope to
get that done in one or two years. When those two
projects are done, and I recognize if you're not from
Anchorage you might not know what we're talking about,
it sets up a link where people can drive around Lake
Otis and Tudor. I keep stressing that we don't
unnecessarily have to build intersections 20 lanes
wide. We need to build connecting links around it.
When those two links are done, it will take 15,000
cars a day off of Lake Otis and Tudor. That's about
one-third, about 30 percent reduction in the traffic
to Lake Otis and Tudor. And those are the types of
things we are trying to do with AMATS and DOT in
Central Region.
1:53:25 PM
REPRESENTATIVE JOHNSON asked if the $8.7 million in the plan for
Lake Otis and Tudor can be spent elsewhere.
MR. KEITH said no.
REPRESENTATIVE JOHNSON asked why that money must be spent on an
upgrade if the problem has been resolved.
MR. KEITH said the Lake Otis and Tudor [intersection] is
complementary to it. When that project is finished with left
and right turning lanes, the entire grid will function better.
The mayor would like to move ahead with that project before the
Dowling project begins.
1:54:29 PM
CHAIR JOHANSEN asked how valuable using bonding money is to
DOT&PF in terms of getting projects out quickly.
REPRESENTATIVE FAIRCLOUGH said Anchorage bonds for its roads in
a significant way. She expressed surprise that Fifth Avenue,
between Gambell and Airport Heights, is not on the list. She
said the traffic is at a dead stop for 30 minutes along that
roadway.
MR. KEITH replied DOT&PF has a fix for that area. The six-lane
section will be extended all of the way from Highland through
Merrill Field into town. The four-lane bottleneck will
disappear. That is an interim fix; but that is necessary to
relieve the back-up until the highway-to-highway project can be
done.
1:56:40 PM
MR. KEITH continued his presentation:
The next exhibit I'd like to show you is having seen
these high traffic volume bottlenecks and notating the
ones I mentioned to you that are the traffic safety
corridors, turning the page, this is the traffic
safety corridor part of the presentation, which is at
least at this point only something that Central Region
is doing and that is just like I said before, we have
the highest accident rates and fatality rates of any
highway in the state so they all fall in our area
here.
What we're trying to do is, faced with these accidents
and deaths, what do we do about it. So we borrowed
and built on the success of other states, particularly
the State of Oregon. We're a young state so we always
think that we can learn from other states and take the
best of what other states have and build on it and
that's how we came up with the concept of highway
safety corridors. It was established by the AS
19.10.075 and, once again, I want to thank you folks
for voting for it. Our Alaska traffic manual
implements this.
To put those in place it's a major effort. We go
through and analyze all of the accidents and one of
the things we had to look at is it the number of
accidents, is it the number - you know, every fender
bender. Is it serious accidents? Is it deaths? We
finally came to the conclusion it's the rate of
accidents. It's the rate of serious accidents and
deaths. So when we sort through those, it's important
to understand the three Es of traffic engineering and
[those are] engineering, education and enforcement.
So, on these traffic zones there is nothing that is
going to happen. If you have a highway that's got
poor geometrics, it's a dangerous highway to begin
with; you're really not going to help it that much.
So we need to engineer it. Part of that engineering
is to put together this highway safety corridor thing
so it makes sense. Education is getting out and we
have money from the Highway Safety Office where we're
educating the public. Some of those things can be as
simple as the drinking and driving campaigns. When we
first kicked off the first traffic safety corridor, we
used the education thing to tell people hey, there's
something different here. You know, we've designated
this area here as an area of high accidents and danger
so if you're talking on your cell phone and listening
to the boom box or what not, when you enter this zone,
slow down and pay attention to what you're doing.
2:00:15 PM
MR. KEITH continued:
And then the final leg on that stool is enforcement.
You have to have increased enforcement. The State of
New Mexico has gone through this and they didn't
increase enforcement and it became a joke. It doesn't
do any good to put up all of the signs and what not if
there's not a predictability on the driver's part that
if you do something wrong, you are going to get a
ticket. We're stressing the "always expect" a
Trooper. If you think that there's a higher
enforcement in these traffic safety corridors, then
you know, even if you don't behave on the rest of the
highway, you better behave in this area.
So, with that, we've designated two traffic safety
corridors already. One is the Seward Highway,
milepost 87 to 117. That's Potter Flats to Girdwood
in May of 2006. We've done one Parks Highway from up
in Representative Neuman's area, the Parks Highway
from Wasilla to Big Lake, which was a very high
accident rate, yet this year we plan to do three more.
We're going to do Knik, Goose Bay Road, which is a
very high traffic, high accident area, at the end of
May this year. Sterling Highway, Scout Lake to
Soldotna down on the Kenai Peninsula and later on in
the summer we're going to try to put together the
Palmer-Wasilla Highway, which has a lot of deaths too.
2:01:58 PM
REPRESENTATIVE NEUMAN commented that two of those roads are in
his district and his family drives them regularly, which scares
him. He said that on top of the congestion problems, there are
many moose on the road, especially between Wasilla and Big Lake.
He said he needs to see more State Troopers on the road. He
asked if the Highway Safety Corridor legislation required that
more State Troopers be posted along that road.
MR. KEITH said there is. He said it takes a long time to come
up with another highway safety corridor because part of the
process requires an extensive analysis of every accident that
happens to establish the pattern and rate of accidents. When
these are put together, the hardest thing to do is getting
assurances from the State Troopers that they will patrol the
area. The State Troopers are cooperative but face challenges,
recruitment being one. He repeated the success of this program
is reliant upon more enforcement. If DOT&PF cannot get
assurances from the State Trooper, it cannot do the traffic
safety corridor because it becomes meaningless.
2:05:49 PM
REPRESENTATIVE NEUMAN expressed concern about the cost of road
improvements; that section will cost $100 million and the
project will not start before 2011.
2:06:17 PM
CHAIR JOHANSEN asked about the "hammer" in a traffic safety
corridor regarding a DWI versus getting a DWI in another area.
MR. KEITH said the penalties are doubled in the traffic safety
area.
2:07:00 PM
REPRESENTATIVE BUCH asked how the signage is differentiated to
notify the public that it is traveling in a traffic safety area.
MR. KEITH explained that only two traffic safety corridors exist
at this time. A large sign, at least four feet by eight feet,
is located at the beginning of the corridor that tells drivers
they are entering the corridor. At every mile, a speed limit
sign says double fines. When the traffic safety corridors are
designated, DOT&PF tries to make the public aware of the opening
with an official ceremony.
2:08:12 PM
REPRESENTATIVE BUCH said his point is that he has driven past
thousands of miles of those signs but has become callous to
seeing them, which he believes is a common problem. He
questioned what can be done to make that designation glaringly
obvious to the public.
MR. KEITH informed members there are only two traffic safety
corridors in the state but he understands that point and will
take a look at it. He said the highway safety corridor
designation is used judiciously because designating every
highway that way would lose people's attention.
2:10:35 PM
REPRESENTATIVE DOOGAN said it appears the safety corridor
designation has worked well on the Parks Highway and
spectacularly on the Seward Highway.
MR. KEITH agreed and said observation of the safety improvement
rate has been underway for only one year so the information
provided is very preliminary. DOT&PF does an annual audit of
each traffic corridor in April. These numbers will probably get
closer together but, if they don't, DOT&PF will have to
determine what to do. DOT&PF does not have a panacea for safe
roads; this program is an interim solution. DOT&PF needs to
increase road capacity by building multi-lane roads. The number
of accident deaths will not drop to zero by putting up a few
signs but it will help decrease the number until the corridors
are upgraded.
2:12:46 PM
REPRESENTATIVE DOOGAN commented that getting people to stop
drinking and driving would change the statistics.
MR. KEITH responded that there's no doubt about that. He said
this data is very concise for the State Troopers. For example,
the data shows a pattern on the Knik Goose Bay road of drinking,
driving, and drugs and the time of day that happens.
2:13:38 PM
CHAIR JOHANSEN referred to the "hammer" of double fines and
asked if the jail sentence for a DUI is also doubled to six
days.
MR. KEITH related his understanding that only the fine is
doubled. He said when DOT&PF offered information for the
proposed legislation, it wanted offenders to get double points
on their licenses as well as double fines, but that did not get
adopted.
CHAIR JOHANSEN suggested trying to get that adopted now.
MR. KEITH said the data shows a correlation between the number
of deaths and DUIs.
2:15:00 PM
REPRESENTATIVE NEUMAN maintained the driver does get double
points on his or her license.
MR. KEITH said he would check and affirm that for the committee.
2:15:20 PM
REPRESENTATIVE JOHNSON asked if revenue from the double fines
has increased. He said he hoped it had not as a result of fewer
tickets being issued.
MR. KEITH acknowledged the number of tickets has declined on the
Seward Highway.
2:16:15 PM
REPRESENTATIVE JOHNSON said that measure shows the program is
clearly working.
MR. KEITH said he expects to glean much more information about
the program's success from the next audit.
2:16:43 PM
MR. KEITH continued his presentation:
So, if you'll turn past the page that we looked at
that shows the one traffic corridor and now I'm
looking at the sheet, which is the Central Region
Safety Corridor Candidates by ranking and
consideration. Once again, this is just what we've
been describing here where our folks go through and
find the areas that have the highest accident rate and
then rank them in order and this is what our ranking
is as of May 2006. I think that's all the information
that I want to gather from that one and that concludes
my discussion of congestion as it directly relates to
the safety and fatalities in the Central Region.
The next thing I'd like to move ahead to is pavement
condition, particularly rutting. Once again, rutting
is a function of repetitive driving over a road. It
is the ADT over a road; it's not the age of the road.
It isn't - we paved that three years ago. You know if
it has light traffic it is not going to rut so this -
when we look at the Central Region with our heavy
traffic and we're seeing - I guess it's worthwhile for
me that I travel sometimes to Fairbanks for business
and sometimes I come down here for business. I
understand that down here in Southeast and Northern
Region have their own challenges. Southeast - you
know, lack of roads so that you have to be dependent
on the ferry system I think is a major problem. Mal
Menzies, of course, will tell you what he thinks it
is. Northern Region I can see up there they don't
have much of a problem with rutting but they have a
tremendous problem with sub-grade, with permafrost and
what-not. The roads turn into roller coasters before
the pavement ever wears out but in the Central Region,
it's rutted. That's a component of a high traffic
count. So we've gone through both my staff and the
Central Region pavement management engineer and we've
looked at the needs for rutting and we've looked at
our state funds we already have to repair the ruts.
The federal aid money in the STIP might fix these.
2:19:54 PM
MR. KEITH continued:
We haven't discussed it but I know Commissioner Von
Sheben has talked to you about the declining federal
revenues. So this list is comprised of roads that we
have serious rutting but no funding for - not in the
STIP. We don't have a general fund project to fix it
so if you look at the sheet that is called Central
Region and main highway rut problems, the first subset
down to the subtotal rut issue is just the [National
Highway System] NHS. When a maintenance engineer put
this together, main highways means the National
Highway System, and you can see that on the National
Highway System we have $114 million worth of rutting
that we have no way of funding to fix those. And
then, beyond that, we have another category of roads,
also still - this whole sheet is actual highway system
that has other problems with a pavement condition,
including it has a problem with the base course is
unstable and somehow we have to come in and do an
additive to the base, reinforced base, an asphalt
treated base or something like that to solve the
problem - foamed asphalt base. So, our main highway
system, we have $171 million worth of work that is
probably the best I can describe on NHS that is
deferred maintenance that has no funding source in
sight.
2:21:51 PM
REPRESENTATIVE BUCH asked Mr. Keith to comment on the state's
requirements regarding the use of North Slope crude in the
state's asphalt and speak to the contention in that issue.
MR. KEITH said he has an extensive background in paving. He
noted DOT&PF does not specify where the crude comes from.
DOT&PF uses performance grading asphalt (PG grading), that comes
from the American Association of Highway Transportation Office's
(AASHTO's) strategic highway research program. It says that
irrespective of where the asphalt comes from, the PG ratings are
based on a performance band. Wherever the oil comes from, it
must meet specific characteristics. Almost all of the asphalt
in Anchorage comes from Tesoro because it costs more to haul it
from Flint Hills than Nikiski. Each batch of asphalt must meet
that PG rating. It is not a North Slope crude issue. He
thought all of the oil in Southeast is barged in from the Lower
48 states.
2:25:39 PM
REPRESENTATIVE NEUMAN noted that studded tires come into play
with ruts and asked if the compression ratio is a factor.
MR. KEITH said no part of the rut component is below the
pavement. The largest cause of road rutting is stud wear. A
small component is densification, which is caused by compression
from tire wear in the summertime.
2:27:33 PM
REPRESENTATIVE NEUMAN recalled that legislation was introduced
the previous year to increase fines for overweight vehicles and
asked how much that affects compression.
MR. KEITH said overloaded trucks cause stress to pavement, but
that is not related to ruts. The spacing of the ruts indicates
that the problem is the average sedan, not overloaded trucks.
About 25 years ago, softer oil was used, and trucks could leave
tire tracks on pavement on a hot day. However, that should not
be happening now.
2:29:06 PM
REPRESENTATIVE SALMON said the area around Wasilla is a
bottleneck area. He asked whether DOT&PF has any plans to build
a bypass around Wasilla.
MR. KEITH replied yes; DOT&PF has entered into a partnership
between Wasilla and the Alaska Railroad. They have a consultant
on board and the EIS process to build a multi-modal corridor
around Wasilla has begun. That will entail moving the railroad
and highway to bypass Wasilla. He said that is part of the
National Highway System but it has competing uses. A driver
needs to get on the Parks Highway to go 2 blocks to a grocery
store, and another driver is using it as a through highway. The
idea is to build the bypass so that the local traffic can use
the existing road and the through traffic can use the bypass.
That project will be expensive.
2:31:59 PM
REPRESENTATIVE SALMON asked whether the Takotna (ph) airport
will be relocated.
MR. KEITH said he visited Takotna. At one point DOT&PF
considered moving it to Katalina (ph), but that plan was not
acceptable to the community because of the longer drive. He
offered to follow up and send Representative Salmon a drawing of
the location.
2:33:23 PM
REPRESENTATIVE DOOGAN questioned whether road rutting would be
reduced by 80 percent if studded tires are no longer allowed.
MR. KEITH said he believes that is true.
2:34:18 PM
REPRESENTATIVE JOHNSON asked for an explanation of raveling.
MR. KEITH explained that raveling occurs when pavement loses its
integrity and flakes away.
2:34:46 PM
CHAIR JOHANSEN asked about the size of the Wasilla bypass
project and the kind of feedback DOT&PF has received on it.
MR. KEITH replied the consultant will be determining the size of
the project. The department gave a presentation to the area
legislators and will meet with the city council, the borough,
and public groups. The cost is probably $200 million between
highways and the railroad. The project has been studied quite a
bit, particularly by the railroad. DOT&PF must pull that
information together to determine whether a common corridor
works for both the highway and the railroad. The department is
looking at two options: one south of the Parks Highway and one
north of the Parks Highway. The City of Wasilla has
enthusiastically endorsed the project. Merchants did not like
the bypass route at first but soon realized that people are
reluctant to pull into their stores when they are stuck in
traffic.
2:37:26 PM
REPRESENTATIVE BUCH said the best designed roads he has seen in
Alaska are in Fairbanks. They are functional roads that will be
there a long time. He asked for a history of those roads and
questioned how long it took to construct the bypass in
Fairbanks.
MR. KEITH said Fairbanks was able to get funding to build its
network of roads prior to the need for it, whereas that same
opportunity was not available to Wasilla or Anchorage. That is
the long-range plan for Anchorage, and particularly to establish
a thruway to alleviate Anchorage's congestion.
2:39:37 PM
REPRESENTATIVE BUCH asked if he was speaking about one of the
th
first projects the committee looked at that goes from 36
[Avenue] to Fairview.
MR. KEITH said the highway-to-highway project begins at Bragaw
and Glenn Highway. DOT&PF is working on Phase 1 of that
th
project. The actual highway-to-highway ends at 36and that
will be the backbone of transportation in Anchorage.
2:40:57 PM
REPRESENTATIVE NEUMAN asked how a second class city like Houston
would get state assistance for road projects.
MR. KEITH said the list of transportation needs contains the
universe of all projects requested in Alaska. That list is 20
times larger than DOT&PF's budget each year. Houston could talk
with DOT&PF planners and request federal funding or go to the
Legislature for general funds.
2:43:14 PM
REPRESENTATIVE NEUMAN explained that Houston officials came to
him and Senator Huggins for general funds. They put $225,000 in
the budget but those funds were vetoed. Houston lost roads from
recent flooding and the city cannot afford to rebuild them.
These roads are traveled by school buses, fire trucks and
ambulances.
MR. KEITH thought requesting general funds is the best way to
go.
2:43:54 PM
MR. KEITH continued his presentation:
The next sheet is called Central Region Highway Rut
Repair Needs. This is all highways, not the NHS and
I'll just summarize and go to the bottom line. Just
in the issue of ruts we have $285 million right today
and if anyone goes to Anchorage, in fact I hear the
comments all of the time that we're falling behind on
ruts and they're right. This gives you the whole
Central Region, not just Anchorage, but the whole
Central Region, how much we need just to solve that
rut problem.
2:44:39 PM
REPRESENTATIVE DOOGAN asked whether DOT&PF has considered that
if rut repair is going to cost $300 million, Alaska should
return to gravel roads, which are easier to build and maintain.
MR. KEITH said he started at DOT&PF in 1965 when a lot of gravel
roads were built. Afterward, DOT&PF put a bituminous surface
treatment on them. He opined that the issue came down to
people's expectations and traffic. He said he was unsure
whether DOT&PF could keep up with the maintenance on gravel
roads used by 60,000 cars per day. People would be unhappy.
He pointed out the Northern Region declared a truce in the
battle with permafrost and decided to level the roads and coat
them with a bituminous treatment more frequently, rather than
pave them.
2:46:26 PM
REPRESENTATIVE DOOGAN noted that DOT&PF is not keeping up now.
He pointed out that one page of the handout consists of rut
repair projects at a cost of $285 million.
MR. KEITH nodded yes.
2:46:53 PM
CHAIR JOHANSEN suggested doing a gravel road pilot project in
Representative Doogan's district.
REPRESENTATIVE DOOGAN jested that he would be satisfied if his
district had roads.
CHAIR JOHANSEN argued that Southeast Alaska's main highway has
zero rut problems.
2:47:22 PM
REPRESENTATIVE BUCH noted that Anchorage has some experimental
concrete road systems and asked for an update on those.
MR. KEITH said the concrete areas are not test sections; they
are weigh and motion slabs that count and weigh the trucks as
they go by. That cannot be done with asphalt. DOT&PF did not
intend to test those sections but they might be acting as such.
Those areas rut and they spall off. At the end of each summer,
a time when no studded tires have been in use, DOT&PF measures
those areas for road ruts and has found some caused by plastic
deformation. Initially the concrete ruts were just about as bad
as those in asphalt.
MR. KEITH said his construction director met with the concrete
paving association last week. The department wants to test part
or an entire intersection with concrete to see how it compares
to an asphalt intersection. However, the initial cost of
concrete is costlier than asphalt. The department is trying to
get a life cycle cost, he remarked.
2:51:11 PM
CHAIR JOHANSEN asked whether that information has been gathered
elsewhere in the United States.
MR. KEITH said road ruts are not specific to Alaska.
CHAIR JOHANSEN specified that he was speaking to the comparison
between asphalt and concrete.
MR. KEITH said he believes comparisons have been made. He
related his belief that [concrete] is superior for rut
resistance, but the cost is the factor.
CHAIR JOHANSEN questioned the need for Alaska's DOT&PF to go
through that process if other areas have collected comparison
data.
2:52:32 PM
MR. KEITH continued his presentation:
I'll just quickly skip over the maps that show what I
was telling you and then I'll go to the, what I call,
the war against pavement rutting and it's after the
GIS maps. I don't want to give the impression that
DOT is not doing anything with the ruts. I don't want
to give the impression that we're putting out the same
old stuff and that's what we always did and that's
what we're always going to do. We're constantly
making improvements in our mix. A lot of it is based
on, just like you're talking about Chairman Johansen,
we're looking at what are other states doing. So
these are some of the things we've done in the last 15
years or so. For a long time we were using and had
some success with this stone mastic asphalt and that's
a technology picked up from Europe and the biggest
single thing there is you're normal asphalt that, I'm
going to call, parking lot asphalt is about 75 percent
fine mix and 30 percent coarse mix. The cut-off was
at one-quarter inch coarse versus fine. Stone mastic
asphalt does exactly the opposite. It puts 70 percent
of the quarter inch and higher and only 30 percent of
the find so you get a stone-on-stone compact instead
of the slurry before where you had two stones cemented
in with sand and what not, you have stone-on-stone
contact. And we had some successes with that but
we're trying to improve even on that. Now we're, for
the last 10 years or so, we're using polymer modified
oil where we're taking the oil, whether once again
it's from the North Slope or wherever it comes from
and we're modifying it with long chain polymers. In
fact, it's a styrene butylene styrene. You run it
through a sheer mill and that gives a better
performance ranged in that PG grading and we've had a
lot of luck with that. The pavements lasted longer,
less thermal cracking. They're the cracks across the
road on a regular pattern - less of those. Now we're
going to a super-paved mix, which is derived from this
strategic highway research program that AASHTO put
together. We've used it on Tudor Road. It will be
three years ago this summer. We did the east bound
lanes with hard aggregate, west bound lanes with our
just alluvial gravel from the Valley. Alaska is not
blessed with very hard aggregate so we imported hard
aggregate to do this. We're monitoring that. Both
sides are performing quite well and I believe the
reason for it is we're using this super-pave mix and
we used it on Elmore Road. One of the things on the
super-pave mix is, once again, it uses a cubical
aggregate. The shape of the aggregate is really
important. But other than having some thin and
elongated aggregate pieces, all the aggregate are
little cubes. You crush it for that purpose and it's
showing a lot of promise.
2:56:34 PM
REPRESENTATIVE NEUMAN said regarding deferred maintenance,
DOT&PF's bare bones request in the operating budget was $38
million but it only received $25 million in the governor's
budget. He said legislators have to answer to constituents at
town hall meetings who want these projects completed right away.
He asked Mr. Keith to comment.
MR. KEITH referred to the operating budget for maintenance,
named Maintenance and Operations General Fund Authorizations in
members' packets, and said the chart shows statewide needs. The
chart has remained flat since FY 83 yet the consumer price index
(CPI) has increased quite a bit. A comparison of the CPI with
DOT&PF's budget would show about a $50 million gap since 1983.
That does not account for more lane miles, more stop lights,
etcetera. The Legislature has recognized and helped during the
last couple of years.
2:58:59 PM
REPRESENTATIVE NEUMAN noted only one boom truck fixes all of the
luminous lights in Anchorage, Kenai and the Mat-Su Borough.
MR. KEITH said that is correct. DOT&PF has been trying to get
another boom truck for the Mat-Su Valley.
2:59:45 PM
MR. KEITH continued his presentation:
In summation I'd like to say that what we're
experiencing in the Central Region, as well as
probably the whole department, is federal funds are
going down. I think probably Jeff Ottesen has talked
to you about that. ... Construction costs are going up
three times what the consumer price index is going up.
The barrels of oil going through the pipeline are
going down. The unmet needs are going up and I'll
leave that with my pitch for the need for a state
funded transportation program.
3:01:03 PM
ADJOURNMENT
There being no further business before the committee, the House
Transportation Standing Committee meeting was adjourned at 3:01
p.m.
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