Community Transportation Infrastructure

How the CTP and TAP build local projects

By Dimitra Lavrakas

From bridges, roads, and trails to storm water drainage, habitat connectivity, and scenic overlooks, the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities’ (DOT&PF) Community Transportation Program (CTP) and Transportation Alternative Program (TAP) are all about getting from here to there. In September, DOT&PF opened the application period for the most recent funding cycle with up to $120 million to spend on CTP projects and up to $30 million for TAP projects.

“It’s been years since we put out a call for projects under the CTP Program,” said DOT&PF Commissioner Ryan Anderson in a press release. “These funds help our communities build transportation infrastructure that is sustainable, improves safety, addresses resiliency, and supports economic development.”

Cash for Communities

CTP projects for this round of funding can address any of the following goals: improve existing surface transportation facilities; improve or make new transportation facilities that provide access to important resources or connect communities; improve rural ports and barge landings; connect different types of transportation modes, such as transit and trails or roads; enhance travel and tourism; add electric vehicle charging infrastructure; or reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions.

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TAP projects may include on-road and off-road facilities for pedestrians and bicyclists; safe routes for nondrivers, formerly called Safe Routes to School; converting abandoned railroad corridors into trails for non-motorized transportation users; creating turnouts, scenic overlooks, and viewing areas; supporting historic preservation and rehabilitation; supporting environmental mitigation related to stormwater and habitat connectivity; conducting vulnerable road user safety assessments; or installing streetlights.

During the application phase last September and October, communities could submit a Notice of Intent to Apply complete with project title, location, scope, a short justification, and a completed screening. Phase II from November through February is the Call for Projects, a period to determine eligibility and prepare a scope, schedule, and cost estimate. This is the time communities develop full applications for projects found eligible. This month and next, DOT&PF is preparing packets that score each project. The Statewide Project Evaluation Board meets next month and will announce in May which projects receive funding.

All projects require a 9.03 percent local funding match.

Just by completing the Notice of Intent online using the project intake survey, communities can choose to have their projects analyzed for other funding opportunities beyond CTP and TAP. DOT&PF and the Alaska Municipal League also work with communities to help determine which projects are eligible and assist communities in strengthening the applications.

Each public entity is allowed to submit only two CTP projects, with a not-to-exceed federal share amount of $15 million. TAP projects are limited to two project submittals per community with a limit of $5 million in federal funding, although the total cost of the project may exceed the federal share if the community has identified additional, alternative nonfederal funding.

Both programs advance the DOT&PF mission statement: “Keep Alaska moving through service and infrastructure.”

Maren Brantner, manager of DOT&PF’s Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP), is responsible for maintaining the federally required and fiscally constrained four-year transportation plan for the state. Her section manages several competitive funding programs and coordinates with various other transportation plans.

“Minor changes were made to the criteria this round,” Brantner says. “These changes were available for public review and comment prior to approval.”

So far, she says, 192 intake surveys have been received and are still being reviewed for eligibility for state funding opportunities. After the surveys are matched with an appropriate program, the processing of project applications begins.

Julius Adolfsson, a statewide bicycle and pedestrian coordinator and rural transit planner at DOT&PF, says close to sixty-four Notices of Intent to Apply have been received for TAP funding.

Cordova Takes Steps

One example of a past TAP project is a pedestrian amenity in Cordova. A stairway to improve foot traffic was built between the town’s waterfront and the civic building that contains the public library and historical museum on the main avenue, 1st Street.

Mayor David Allison announced the project in September 2021: “The new Cordova Center stairs are officially under construction! They will connect the harbor and Railroad Avenue to Main Street via a covered, lighted pedestrian stairway on the south side of the Cordova Center.”

The grand ribbon cutting came in April 2022. “We hope you’re as excited as we are for them to be finished,” the mayor added. “No more taking the long way around!”

Ninety percent of the funds for the Cordova stairway were provided by TAP, with federal funding of $375,174 and a match of $41,825 for a total of $417,000.

“People really like it,” says Cordova Historical Museum Director Mimi Briggs. “They use it for exercise because it’s a covered walkway and use it to come up from the harbor. We’re happy we finally got them.”

Before the stairway, the walking path between Cordova’s harbor and 1st Street detoured a couple blocks north or south of the Cordova Center.

“It’s been a game-changer,” says Cordova City Manager Helen Howarth. “Built on a mountainside with the harbor separated from us, and the harbor is our important infrastructure because we’re a fishing town. The stairwell provides easy access to downtown for groceries.”

It is also, she says, an easier way for children at Mt. Eccles Elementary School to go to the city swimming pool, downhill on Railroad Drive, rather than being bused less than a mile.

Reportedly the Cordova Volunteer Fire Department also uses the stairway for training.

“Yes, that is correct. Fire department members are using those stairs for training and physical fitness, wearing a full set of our fire personal protection equipment, a.k.a. bunker gear, and our self-contained breathing apparatus,” says Cordova Fire Marshal and Deputy Fire Chief Paul Trumblee.

A little imagination and less than half a million dollars make a big difference in a small town.

Sitka Looks Forward to Sea Walk

For more than ten times the cash, Sitka has been pursuing a pedestrian project for more than ten years. The Sitka Sea Walk was initiated in 2011 to link Sitka National Historical Park to the cruise ship docks. It is designed as a destination for both locals and visitors and a waterfront showcase.

The proposed extension is split into three sections, from the current end of the sea walk built in Phase I to three Phase II sections, each about one-tenth of a mile, from Crescent Harbor to Totem Square and Lincoln Street.

All three sections have a total cost of $5.4 million, with the middle section along the shore eating up 80 percent of the price tag for the phase.

Phase I was completed and opened in 2013. Design on the segment to reach the visitor center began in 2020, and construction is set to start on that segment this year.

“We have completed preliminary design and scoping,” says Amy Ainslie, planning director for the City and Borough of Sitka. “These documents were presented to the public here in Sitka on November 30, and we had an open public comment period, which ended on January 4. We are currently awaiting completion of the environmental impact assessment.”

Ainslie says Phase I was very successful, and that portion of the sea walk is heavily used by locals and visitors alike and “has become a beloved community asset.”

Project Coordinator Kelli Cropper agrees. “It’s fantastic. It’s so heavily used and well loved,” she says. “I use it and it’s always crowded. Now we’re working on continuing it all the way to the end of town.”

Team Project Manager Tyler Bradshaw, who works out of PND Engineers' Juneau office, says that the public comment period and community information meetings are now complete, and the project is moving forward into final design. He anticipates construction will start in 2024.