The Northwest Arctic Borough has approved a new transportation plan on Feb. 28 that establishes a regional planning organization for the region.
The partnership is the third of its kind in the state and the first in Western Alaska. It aims to reduce costs and increase community input from rural villages by coordinating projects between the borough and state Department of Transportation.
For the Northwest Arctic Borough, the partnership will mean more coordination on large-scale state transportation projects and other infrastructure projects prioritized by the borough, said Borough Planning Director Clay Nordlum. According to Nordlum, working together on timing and funding will save the state and borough money.
“It saves on mobilization cost, because typically in the village, there's not a whole lot of equipment out there to get large projects done,” Nordlum said. “If the planning is happening kind of along the lines of the DOT being out there or large projects being out there, then you can get a bunch of other smaller projects done.”
The program is a way to utilize heavy equipment from DOT projects, for things like the upcoming airport renovations in Noatak and Noorvik, and for smaller projects in the villages, like improvements to water and sewer, said Nordlum.
Nordlum said the partnership should also allow for more community input on large projects.
“This RPO really is to have a local connection out in the villages instead of somebody sitting down in Fairbanks or Anchorage kind of planning for them,” he said. “It's to have a local say on how these projects work.”
Nordlum says the borough is setting up a commission for the partnership with representatives from NANA Regional Corporation, Maniilaq Association, the City of Kotzebue and representatives from 11 Northwest Arctic communities, including the Red Dog Mine.
“We want to make sure that we are working with different communities in the most productive way,” said John Perreault, the public information officer for the DOT’s Northern Division. “There are many challenges towards developing Alaska infrastructure, some historic challenges, and other new challenges, like budgets and inflation and materials.”
The first regional partnerships were in the Copper Valley and the Fairbanks North Star Borough. Perrault said the DOT is looking to expand the pilot program to more communities throughout the state.
