DOT briefs House Transportation Committee on Highway Safety Improvement Program, funding and countermeasures

Juneau — On May 8 the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities presented an overview of the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) to the House Transportation Committee, explaining eligible projects, funding sources and project-selection methods intended to reduce fatalities and serious injuries on all public roads in Alaska.

Pam Golden, state traffic and safety engineer at DOT, told the committee that HSIP is a federally required, data-driven program. HSIP funds may be spent on a wide range of items listed in statute—construction countermeasures, data collection and analysis, connected-vehicle technologies, road safety audits and transportation safety planning. Under recent federal changes, up to 10% of a state's HSIP apportionment may be used for specified safety activities such as education, law-enforcement support and EMS assistance.

Funding and spending rules: Golden explained the program’s funding streams as described to the committee: approximately $1.2 million in railroad-crossing funds, an uncategorized allocation (with a 10% match required) and transferred penalty funds from the highway-safety office totaling about $26.6 million. She said that when more than 15% of a state’s total fatalities are vulnerable road users (pedestrians, bicyclists and people who are walking or rolling), 15% of the uncategorized HSIP funds must be spent on countermeasures for those users.

Numbers discussed and data requests: Golden estimated the state likely would continue to trigger the vulnerable-road-user spending requirement, citing about 15 vulnerable-road-user fatalities in a year with a total fatality count in the 50–55 range; she said she would confirm those numbers for the committee. Representatives asked for more detail about what qualifies as an e-bike or other nontraditional vehicle for federal crash reporting and how local governments should coordinate HSIP requests.

Countermeasures and project selection: DOT described how regions screen for candidate locations using automated tools that identify segments with fatalities or serious-injury crashes and how engineers select proven countermeasures from federal guidance and the Crash Modification Factor Clearinghouse. Golden said projects are prioritized to maximize benefit per dollar and that DOT measures outcomes by comparing three years of post-construction crash data; she reported an approximate benefit-cost ratio of nearly 6-to-1 for HSIP projects the department has completed.

Maintenance vs. HSIP funds: Several members raised constituent concerns about potholes and routine maintenance that present an immediate safety risk. Golden replied that HSIP cannot be used for routine maintenance and that maintenance and operations budgets are largely funded from state sources rather than federal HSIP dollars. Andy Mills, DOT legislative liaison, said federal construction funding can create long-term obligations that the state must maintain.

Next steps and requests: Committee members asked DOT to follow up on vulnerable-road-user definitions (including e-bikes), provide regional speed- and crash-data context, and confirm the fatality counts used to trigger the 15% vulnerable-road-user spending requirement. DOT staff said they would provide the requested data and noted the department had just posted an updated HSIP handbook online.