DOT outlines Dalton Highway investments and warns industry-driven traffic could raise maintenance costs
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Summary
DOT told the Senate subcommittee the Dalton Highway is a strategic corridor with about $460 million invested over the past decade and an expected roughly $450 million over the next six years; senators discussed an industry fee and whether to consider industrial-road status as pipeline traffic grows.
Department of Transportation officials described the Dalton Highway as the state’s strategic energy corridor and told the Senate Finance Subcommittee they have been programming capital and maintenance work to support potential increased industry traffic.
Jason Sakalaskos, Northern Region maintenance chief, said the Dalton is a mix of gravel and pavement that requires substantial blading, resurfacing and gravel each year. He told the panel the department has invested about $460,000,000 over the past 10 years and is planning roughly $450,000,000 in capital over the next six years, or roughly $45,000,000 per year on average.
Sakalaskos said a revocation of Public Land Order 5150 that returns a corridor to state control will increase DOT responsibility for wayside maintenance but should improve access to material sites managed by the Department of Natural Resources — access DOT said it needs to maintain the gravel-intensive sections of the route. “We should be able to have better access to kind of material sites along the Dalton Highway as it will be managed by DNR,” he said.
Senators pressed DOT on a governor-proposed industry fee to offset Dalton maintenance. “It made sense to me because, you know, fishermen pay a variety of fees to try to maintain their harbors,” one senator said, arguing that industry traffic imposes disproportionate wear. DOT replied the Dalton is a public road and federal funding constraints related to prior federal investment complicate converting it to a private or industrial roadway. “It is a public roadway and open to the traveling public. If it were to be a private roadway, that would not be the case,” a DOT official said.
DOT told the committee it does not yet have precise data on the percentage of commercial traffic but said the roadway is used predominantly by commercial users and that the department will provide traffic-count and design-standard data to the committee. Officials also discussed contractor options to support maintenance during any construction boom and said winter hauling conditions may be favorable for heavy loads.
The committee did not adopt a policy change; DOT agreed to return with traffic percentages, details about federal-funding constraints and other analysis to inform any fee or industrial-road consideration. The subcommittee adjourned at 08:33.
