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 seasonal roads and ice roads. The Program provides Federal Surface Transportation Block Grant (STBG) funding for developing and maintaining seasonal roads and ice 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 seasonal roads and 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 roads and ice roads. The program emphasizes enhancing the safety of seasonal roads and ice roads that are developed and maintained by local communities. Project nominations will be scored using established criteria by an evaluation board.

The estimated total funding for this award cycle will be $4 million. All projects require a 9.03% local match. Successful awardees will submit reimbursement requests for eligible costs to DOT&PF.

Schedule

Public Notice: Announcement	September 1, 2023
Public Notice: Call for Projects	September 5 – October 27, 2023 Applications due October 27, 2023
Evaluation & Scoring	November 1 – 3, 2023
Award Announcement	November 15, 2023
Memorandum of Agreement, Limited Waiver of Sovereign Immunity, Reimbursement Rate per mile	Prior to Project Start

Ice Road Design & Construction

University of Alaska Fairbanks's Institute of Northern Engineering has developed a Design & Operations Ice Road Manual and DOT&PF encourages all ice road operations and maintenance staff to review the document prior to ice road work. Please see the manual here.

• Manual Abstract: This manual provides for the safe and efficient design, construction, maintenance, and operation of ice roads over freshwater. As such, it provides the parties responsible for the ice road guidelines for ensuring the safe operation of the ice road including route selection, minimum ice thicknesses, repair strategies, maximum vehicle weights and speed, and proper signage. The information provided in the manual represents best practices compiled from existing literature and from those who have experience working on ice roads. While every scenario cannot be foreseen, the information contained in this manual should provide sufficient knowledge to extrapolate safe solutions which are not explicitly covered here.

Eligible activities include but are not limited to 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
• Snow Fencing – build temporary snow fencing to prevent snow drifting on the road

NOTE: The following are examples of ineligible activities, but are not comprehensive of all ineligible activities under the SIRA program: ground-disturbing maintenance work, work involving the water column, permanent trail markings on land, improvements to access the ice road outside of 300' of the waterway embankment, and undocumented project charges.

Links to notice details are available at:

• Visit the official Online Public Notice and Call for Projects page
• Contact a DOT&PF area planner
• The notice is also posted on the State’s Public Notice site
• A bulletin will also be sent electronically to our current subscribers through the department’s “GovDelivery” system – anyone can sign up for GovDelivery online

State Programs Contact Information:

Awardee Resources

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