Legislature(2025 - 2026)BARNES 124
01/28/2025 01:30 PM House TRANSPORTATION
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| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| Presentation: Overview and Update of the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program | |
| 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
January 28, 2025
1:32 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Representative Ashley Carrick, Co-Chair
Representative Ted Eischeid, Co-Chair
Representative Genevieve Mina
Representative Louise Stutes
Representative Kevin McCabe
Representative Cathy Tilton
Representative Elexie Moore
MEMBERS ABSENT
All members present
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
PRESENTATION: OVERVIEW AND UPDATE OF THE STATEWIDE
TRANSPORTATION IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM
- HEARD
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
No previous action to record
WITNESS REGISTER
KATHERINE KEITH, Deputy Commissioner
Department of Transportation & Public Facilities
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Co-provided the Overview and Update of the
Statewide Transportation Improvement Program presentation and
took questions from the committee.
DOM PANNONE, Director
Program Management and Administration
Department of Transportation & Public Facilities
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Co-provided the Overview and Update of the
Statewide Transportation Improvement Program presentation and
took questions from the committee.
ACTION NARRATIVE
1:32:42 PM
CO-CHAIR ASHLEY CARRICK called the House Transportation Standing
Committee meeting to order at 1:32 p.m. Representatives Mina,
Stutes, McCabe, Tilton, Moore, Eischeid, and Carrick were
present at the call to order.
^PRESENTATION: Overview and Update of the Statewide
Transportation Improvement Program
PRESENTATION: Overview and Update of the Statewide
Transportation Improvement Program
1:33:37 PM
CO-CHAIR CARRICK announced that the only order of business would
be the Overview and Update of the Statewide Transportation
Improvement Program presentation.
1:34:50 PM
KATHERINE KEITH, Deputy Commissioner, Department of
Transportation & Public Facilities, began the Statewide
Transportation Improvement Program presentation [hard copy
included in committee packet] on slide 2, titled "Statewide
Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) Timeline," and
overviewed the timeline of STIP development.
1:38:08 PM
MS. KEITH, in response to questions from various committee
members, stated that the Department of Transportation & Public
Facilities (DOT&PF) is required to coordinate with its
metropolitan planning organizations (MPO) and has had 70
meetings from April 2024 to present. She opined that the issues
MPOs are raising about not being included in STIP development
may be referring to not receiving a copy of the STIP until the
public comment period, but stated DOT&PF is not allowed to
submit an entire draft of a public document to an MPO policy
board or technical committee without it becoming publicly
available. She said that DOT&PF and the MPOs are working on a
collaborative document to set expectations for engagement over
the development of the Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP) and
the STIP. There have been documented issues between MPOs and
DOT&PF over STIP development going back to 2012.
The new requirement that projects which fall under the purview
of the TIP had to be removed from the STIP without a grace
period caused some projects to not be programmed. She provided
her understanding that the executive directors of the MPOs
communicate directly with federal partners but do not officially
represent the MPO while doing so. Following the comments from
federal partners on the original STIP, more tracking of agenda
items on the daily communications between DOT&PF and the MPOs
has been implemented. She clarified that the MPO policy board
should comment only on projects that fall within the boundary of
the MPO but can make comments as a member of the public about
any project within the state. She stated that MPOs share the
same sub-allocation of funding, and the creation of the
Matanuska-Susitna (Mat-Su) Valley MPO impacts funding
allocation. FAST Planning did not receive a significant
reduction in funding due to sub-allocation funding changes.
1:55:25 PM
MS. KEITH resumed the presentation on slide 3, titled "STIP
Through the Years - Complexity," and stated that the number of
pages in the STIP has increased from under 500 to 3,000 pages
and DOT&PF has developed new tools for the STIP and the public
comment process.
1:56:57 PM
MS. KEITH, in response to questions from various committee
members, affirmed that DOT&PF has adequate and competent
staffing to complete developing the STIP. She stated artificial
intelligence did not play a role in the STIP development, but
DOT&PF is considering its use for back-end tasks, predictions,
and finding trends. She explained the increase of the STIP
document was due to the inclusion in over 1,000 pages of
disposition of public comment, a larger fiscal constraint
document, and directly attaching MPO TIPs, Western Federal Lands
Highway Division TIP, and Tribal TIP. She provided her
understanding that Alaska has the largest STIP in the union and
is having an unusual experience. The development of the STIP is
a collaborative project and in May 2023 the DOT&PF Office of the
Commissioner stepped in after noticing a large backlog on the
first draft of the STIP. She stated that she is currently the
acting Northern Region director and is the sole deputy
commissioner, but DOT&PF is looking to hire a Northern Region
director and has reorganized some administrative structuring to
accommodate a single deputy commissioner. She said that
fundamentally the governor approves the STIP and Commissioner
Anderson has signing authority.
2:12:13 PM
MS. KEITH moved to slide 4, "STIP Through the Years - Project
and Program Inclusion," and stated that DOT&PF removed the
Anchorage Metropolitan Area Transportation Solutions
(AMATS)/FAST Planning Community Transportation Programs from the
STIP to have the programs implemented in the MPO's TIP instead,
which caused DOT&PF to reprogram over 70 projects into the STIP.
2:13:34 PM
DOM PANNONE, Director, Program Management and Administration,
Department of Transportation & Public Facilities, transitioned
to slide 5 and explained that in previous STIPs DOT&PF
overprogrammed projects by about 30 percent to account for
project encountering cost increases. During the process of
modernizing the STIP to an e-STIP system the overprogramming
became a fiscal constraint issue that caused federal partners to
intervene.
2:16:26 PM
MR. PANNONE, in response to questions from Representative
McCabe, clarified that overprogramming is having more projects
or programs than the federal government is providing revenue
for, and that in previous STIPs there was language that allowed
cleared projects that had unanticipated costs to continue
without having to go through public comment periods. He added
that the special language was removed in the first approved
STIP.
2:19:15 PM
MR. PANNONE moved to slide 6 and overviewed the team behind STIP
development.
2:22:00 PM
MR. PANNONE, in response to a question from Representative Mina,
stated that the DOT&PF Division of Planning & Program
Development is a legacy division that was redistributed to other
sections of DOT&PF.
MS. KEITH, in response to questions from various committee
members, stated that the Division of Project Delivery Services
works on the transportation program and emphasized the cross
department nature of STIP development. She stated that the STIP
team had over 300 years of combined experience on developing the
STIP and she would provide the committee with a list of staff.
She agreed with a statement from Representative McCabe that the
issues with STIP development are due to it being a new type of
STIP, the e-STIP failing due to computer issues, and the Federal
Highway Administration (FHWA) enforcing new regulations. She
provided her understanding that the comment from the
commissioner [on February 15, 2024 in the House Transportation
Standing Committee] about the staff working on STIP development
having no previous experience was in relation only to lacking
experience with the new type of STIP.
2:30:22 PM
MS. KEITH continued the presentation on slide 7 and commented
that Alaska DOT&PF won an award at the American Association of
State Highway and Transportation Officials Transportation
Communication Conference for its public involvement efforts.
2:31:13 PM
MS. KEITH, in response to a question from Co-Chair Carrick,
speculated that the 7+ news media stories involving STIP could
be press releases instead of media stories.
MR. PANNONE clarified that the 7+ news stories were only from
the 45-day comment period.
MS. KEITH, in response to a question from Co-Chair Carrick,
stated tribal consultation was being transformed as the previous
methods of communication were not reaching tribal communities.
2:34:39 PM
MS. KEITH moved to slide 8 and stated that of the 14 corrective
actions provided by FHWA and the Federal Transit Administration
(FTA), DOT&PF considers 10 resolved while DOT&PF considers all
resolved.
2:35:45 PM
MS. KEITH, in response to questions from various committee
members, affirmed that the federal agencies only gave DOT&PF 16
days to recreate the entire STIP due to some of the corrective
actions pertaining to structural issues with the STIP. The
development of the e-STIP began in 2021 but in 2023 DOT&PF
became aware of issues with overprogramming and attempted to fix
them within the e-STIP until July 2023. Federal agencies
approved an extension to the STIP deadline from September 2023
to March 2024, which gave DOT&PF more time to hold conversations
and would have been provided more time to rewrite the STIP had
federal partners provided written guidance sooner.
MR. PANNONE clarified that STIP development was on track until
the e-STIP software and programming created issues. The
deadline for the STIP was set with the one time extension and
DOT&PF struggled to receive concrete guidelines and goals
despite having frequent meetings with FHWA and a fiscal
constraint planner.
2:45:32 PM
MS. KEITH, in response to questions from various committee
members, provided her understanding that the one other state
that uses the same software that DOT&PF was using to develop the
e-STIP was having issues only with cost. She added that after
the e-STIP, DOT&PF decided to use "low tech" open source
software to provide flexibility for adding features. She stated
that FHWA and FTA are currently reviewing the drafted second
amendment for the STIP as per the request of Gloria Shepherd,
Executive Director of FHWA. Of the $45 million that DOT&PF has
obligated towards 260 projects, most of the funding is coming
from federal revenue.
MR. PANNONE clarified that the target date for Amendment 2 of
the STIP was communicated to the MPOs but is not a requirement.
He emphasized the communications between FHWA, FTA, and DOT&PF
and the necessity to amend the STIP quickly.
2:52:27 PM
MS. KEITH returned to the presentation on slides 10-11 and
stated that DOT&PF contested many of the planning findings from
FHWA and FTA because the findings were not clear enough to act
on. To slide 15, she stated that the Richardson Highway
Milepost 346 Chena Bridge is outside the FAST Planning MPO
Boundary and DOT&PF was able to get the related federal finding
reversed.
2:55:45 PM
MS. KEITH, in response to questions from Representative McCabe,
stated the FAST Planning was aware of the Richardson Highway
Milepost 346 Chena Bridge but there is confusion between it and
DOT&PF over whether it is in the metropolitan planning area
(MPA) or not. She added that the Safer Seward Highway Corridor
partially falls within the border of AMATS MPA, which did not
agree with the use of federal highway system funding; DOT&PF has
changed the terminus of the project to fall on milepost 112.5,
outside of AMATS MPA. She agreed with a comment from
Representative McCabe that the issues at hand were caused by
organizations inside the state presuming they had authority over
long-standing projects.
3:00:30 PM
ADJOURNMENT
There being no further business before the committee, the House
Transportation Standing Committee meeting was adjourned at
p.m.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| STIP Update Presentation 01.28.25.pdf |
HTRA 1/28/2025 1:30:00 PM |