Alaska State Legislature
News from the Office of Senator Dave Donley

716 W Fourth Avenue, Suite 430
Anchorage, AK 99501-2133
Phone: 907/258-8181
http://www.akrepublicans.org
Broadcast Actualities: 800/478-6540

Roadblock to Anchorage Road Projects Removed

For Immediate Release: July 1, 1998 Contact: James Armstrong at (907) 258-8181.

Anchorage - Senator Dave Donley (R-Anchorage), Co-Chair of the Anchorage Caucus, announced Thursday that recent changes to a federal transportation law providing states with federal highway aid will dramatically speed up the planning process for Anchorage road projects including the upgrading of the Glenn and New Seward highways in the Anchorage area.

The Transportation Equity ACT (TEA 21) no longer contains the onerous and duplicative Major Investment Study (MIS) provision -- an extremely expensive study which was only required in cities with more than 200,000 residents before major new road projects could be started.

"The MIS provision has had a severe impact on Anchorage by delaying some of our most important transportation projects," said Donley. "During the past five years, while city and state planners attempted to deal with the MIS requirement, federal road improvement funds were being diverted away from Anchorage to other parts of the state with smaller populations and no MIS requirement."

The MIS requirement was so difficult to satisfy that in its five years of existence only one city in the nation managed to complete an MIS.

"Anchorage legislators, the Anchorage Assembly and Anchorage Chamber of Commerce united to convince our Congressional Delegation we were tired of lagging behind other parts of the state on transportation projects," said Donley.

Donley offered an amendment to Senate Joint Resolution 15 which passed last session calling on Congress to eliminate the requirement for MIS as part of the reauthorization of the federal law. The Anchorage Assembly passed a resolution requesting Congress to do the same. The newly formed Anchorage Chamber of Commerce Transportation Committee passed a similar resolution a few months later.

"Thank you to our Congressional Delegation who listened and successfully worked to repeal the MIS requirement," said Donley. "With the roadblock removed, transportation planners will be able to avoid years of delays and move forward with badly needed major road projects in Anchorage," said Donley.

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