(JUNEAU, Alaska) – With the increase in tourism and summer activity, the Department of Transportation & Public Facilities (DOT&PF) is renewing the Adopt-A-Highway program, where citizens clean litter alongside stretches of adopted road. In 2020, due to concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic, DOT&PF suspended the Adopt-A-Highway program in most locations. With the wide availability of vaccines and because litter clean-up is conducted outdoors where it is easy to socially distance, the Adopt-A-Highway program has been fully reinstated in many areas.

This volunteer program helps keep communities clean, especially in difficult fiscal times when budgets are stretched thin on many other road and project priorities. DOT&PF encourages volunteers to attend a virtual training. Contact the local DOT&PF offices across the state if your clean up group needs bags safety vests, and traffic control devices (volunteers are welcome to use their own vests and bags).

Interested in beautifying your own community’s roadsides? If you have a group that would like to sponsor a roadway, you can find more information on how to sign up on the DOT&PF website. Groups agree to a three-year commitment, and can be family members, churches, businesses, organizations or even a group of friends. When sponsoring a section of roadway, the group agrees to pick up litter in its section at least three times per year, following all the department’s safety guidelines. In recognition for keeping Alaska’s highways clean, the organization’s name will be placed on an Adopt-A-Highway sign along the sponsored roadway.

Thank you to all active Adopt-A-Highway groups and community litter volunteers for helping to clean up Alaska and keep it beautiful for us all!

For more information, contact your regional Adopt-A-Highway coordinator here.

The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities oversees 237 airports, 9 ferries serving 35 communities along 3,500 marine miles, over 5,600 miles of highway and 839 public facilities throughout the state of Alaska. The mission of the department is to “Keep Alaska Moving through service and infrastructure.”

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