(ANCHORAGE, Alaska) – The Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities (DOT&PF) has been awarded the prestigious American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Skills Award for its exceptional public involvement strategy on the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP). The award, presented by the AASHTO Committee on Transportation Communications, recognizes DOT&PF’s innovative approach to engaging Alaskans in the development of the STIP—a four-year plan outlining highway, bridge, and trail infrastructure investments across the state.

The AASHTO award celebrates DOT&PF’s commitment to ensuring that the STIP is comprehensive and accessible to all Alaskans. To encourage input from communities statewide, DOT&PF employed a range of outreach tools tailored to Alaska’s diverse regions. These efforts included a virtual town hall, legislative presentations, newspaper advertisements, radio public service announcements, press releases, social media posts, and subscriber communications. Additionally, the department reached out via traditional mail, targeted emails to state, local, village, and tribal governments, an interactive online platform, web-based commenting, and even voicemail and text messaging.

“We are honored to receive this national award from AASHTO for employing modern tools to foster a more inclusive and accessible public engagement process for our STIP,” said Katherine Keith, Deputy Commissioner of the Alaska DOT&PF. “Incorporating feedback from Alaskans is integral to all that we do. Our teams utilized low-tech, no-code cloud-based platforms to facilitate meaningful dialogue, transforming what was once a static PDF document into an interactive experience, empowering Alaskans to actively shape the future of our transportation system.”

The new STIP outlines priority infrastructure projects across Alaska, encompassing highway and bridge improvements, public transit enhancements, and ferry system updates. DOT&PF’s award-winning engagement strategy resulted in a substantial increase in public input, with the number of comments on the draft STIP rising from an average of around 30 to an unprecedented 1,200, including nearly 200 responses from government and non-government organizations.

DOT&PF extends its gratitude to all Alaskans who participated in the draft STIP process, contributing their insights to help build a more connected, resilient, and accessible transportation system for our state.

To review the complete list of the 2024 AASHTO Transportation Communications Skills Award please visit: Committee on Transportation Communications (TransComm) - Skills Awards Winners 2024

For more information on the STIP, please visit dot.alaska.gov/stip.

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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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