Safe Ice Roads for Alaska Program

Program Purpose

The Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities (DOT&PF) has established a new program for communities to competitively access funding for ice roads. The Program provides Federal Surface Transportation Block Grant (STBG) funding for developing and maintaining ice and seasonal roads. Many villages in Alaska are connected by trails that can only be used in the winter months. Residents routinely travel between communities for jobs, food, medical services, cultural and community events. For some, winter is when residents can travel to reach specific subsistence hunting grounds. This program is designed to identify needs through public outreach and involvement, evaluate and score eligible projects against criteria, and prioritize and select projects for funding. Once projects are awarded, the next steps are planning and programming, environmental analysis, design, development, and financial close out. DOT&PF planning staff will assist communities interested in this program to prepare projects for submission and through the life of selected projects.

State of Alaska DOT&PF Division of Program Development

NOTICE: Alaska DOT&PF Launches Funding Opportunity for its
Safe Ice Roads for Alaska (SIRA) Program

Alaska’s tribes, cities, boroughs, and local organized governments will have a new opportunity to nominate ice road projects for funding from the Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities (DOT&PF). The Safe Ice Roads for Alaska program is a competitive funding opportunity administered by the DOT&PF exclusively for the development, maintenance and operations of seasonal ice roads. The program emphasizes enhancing the safety of ice roads that are developed and maintained by local communities. Tribes and communities with experience developing and maintaining ice roads are encouraged to nominate projects for funding. Project nominations will be scored using established criteria by an evaluation board.

The estimated total funding for this award cycle will be $2 million with a maximum award of $500,000. All projects require a 9.03% local match. Successful awardees will submit reimbursement requests for eligible costs to DOT&PF.

Schedule

Public Notice: Announcement	October 17, 2022
Public Notice: Call for Projects	October 24 – November 11, 2022 Applications due Nov 11, 2022
Evaluation & Scoring	November 14 – 18, 2022
Award Announcement	December 1, 2022
Memorandum of Agreement, Limited Waiver of Sovereign Immunity	Prior to Project Start

Eligible activities include the following:

• Planning – Route planning, selecting operations level, determining signage requirements, determining equipment requirements
• Surveying- Manual surveying, GPR surveying
• Route Selection- Route selection, access points
• Ice Road Establishment- Preparing travel lanes, snow clearing, ice strengthening, surveying
• Signage- Construction signs, entry signs, regulatory and advisory signs      
• Monitoring- Visual inspection, surveying
• Maintenance – Repairing cracks, traffic control updating signage
• Administration- Controlling loads and speeds, safety, training. Not to be confused with administrative type activities.
• Shutdown- Close ice road to public use

NOTE: The following are examples of ineligible activities, but are not comprehensive of all ineligible activities under the SIRA program: equipment purchases, permanent trail markings on land, and undocumented project charges.

Links to notice details are available at:

• https://dot.alaska.gov/stwdplng/cip/stip/projects/ISRP.shtml
• Contact a DOT&PF area planner: https://dot.alaska.gov/stwdplng/cip/stip/assets/dotplanners.pdf
• The notice is also posted on the State’s Public Notice site at: http://aws.state.ak.us/OnlinePublicNotices/
• A bulletin will also be sent electronically to our current subscribers through the department’s “GovDelivery” system – anyone can sign up for GovDelivery online at: https://dot.alaska.gov/

State Programs Contact Information:

It is the policy of the Department of Transportation & Public Facilities (DOT&PF) that no person shall be excluded from participation in, or be denied benefits of any and all programs or activities we provide based on race, religion, color, gender, age, marital status, ability, or national origin, regardless of the funding source including Federal Transit Administration, Federal Aviation Administration, Federal Highway Administration and State of Alaska Funds. The State of Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities (DOT&PF) complies with Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Persons with a hearing impairment can contact the department by dialing Alaska Relay at 711 and asking the communication assistant to call the telephone number listed. We are also able to offer, upon request, reasonable accommodations for the special needs related to disabilities.
 
This notice provided IAW 17 AAC 05.195