Good afternoon. I'd like to call this meeting the Senate Transportation Committee to order. The time is 1.41 p.m.
Thank you, everyone, for your patience as
you had another
meeting that went a little bit long.
Nevertheless, we'll endeavor to
discover more about winter road maintenance across our great state. We're in a bunch of it. Room 205
Today is Tuesday, January 27th, 2026, members present are Senator Tobin, Senator Rauscher,
Senator Keel, and myself, senator Bjorkman,
Senator Stedman will be back shortly.
Let the record reflect that we have a quorum to conduct business.
Welcome everyone to Senate Transportation.
Today, we are assisted by and please extend and esteemed.
Senate Transportation, welcome to our recording secretary, Heather Ramseth, and our LAO moderator,
Susan Quigley. The only item on our agenda today is winter operations update from the
Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities. Here from
the department are Jason Sackalakis, Braille Nicholson, Marcus Zimmerman, Andy Mills,
Thank you all for joining us. Whichever of the team would like to join us first. That will be most excellent
Please state your name and identifying titles for the record and begin your presentation. Thank You
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you again my first opportunity to be in front of you
again, another year, Andy Mills, your legislative liaison for the Alaska Department of Transportation
and Public Facilities.
And first up, because of slide order, I'll let Christine introduce herself as well.
Hello.
Good afternoon.
Thank for that opportunity be here today.
For the record, my name is Christine Langley, the Data Modernization and Innovation Director
for The Department.
As we've done in previous years, we brought a team because it really is a statewide effort
and there's interest across the whole state.
So we wanted to bring the maintenance team and it's in most of the leadership here today
just to be sure that you, if you had a specific question or an area of interest that we could
bring that answer to you without having to do so in writing later.
So hopefully we'll be able to answer any questions you do have.
Somewhat quickly, but obviously let us know where you would like to stop and dig in more
And we'll rotate through speakers as we we get to the different slides
Mr. Chairman if you're ready, we will go ahead and start indeed. Thank you
So our first slide is just sort of a primer slide a modern winter operations, so
As we continue to remind you in any of our presentations safety is one of
our primary focuses and so we appreciate any opportunity to talk about how we're
putting safety first and I'm going to go ahead and actually see if Christine
would like to address driven by data because that's a core part of how
We've really noticed over the last few years that data is what drives the best use of our resources
Resource allocation allows us to become proactive in nature instead of reactive
And so we've put a lot of effort across the department into
Acquiring additional data sets as well as turning that Data into information for the benefit of
Our department the public yourselves our funding partners
And, so, we're excited to share with you today several of those situations where we have been able to move things forward
So, as we've done in previous years, only this one spans an entire slide, so we're trying
to fit it in and so apologies again for the small text.
We do like to give members of this committee and anyone of interest on emergency response
a sense of what the department is doing in the, we call it ER, but emergency-response
And certainly the role of the Department of Transportation
and Public Facilities has evolved over the last couple
of years.
The typhoon Merbach and Halong have certainly
called on the department to step up
and meet the challenge with other agencies and partners.
And you will see on this slide deck
a full range of different types of floods, wash outs, avalanches,
landslides, storms, and numerous other emergencies.
would expect the department to be at the forefront of, and others may be a bit of a surprise.
I'll pause on this slide and ask because we have such a wide representation from the Department.
If there's any particular event or
area that you would like one of our team members to comment on or go over,
otherwise we'll continue with our presentation.
Senator Keel.
Mr. Chairman, I actually don't have a question per se.
I want to just applaud the department for its role within the executive branch in responding to a huge number of disasters.
And I particularly want a flag.
I know a lot of folks from here in my district were sent out west.
to help with the response to typhoon along people were tapped for
expertise that sometimes wasn't in their job description, but was in
their heads and they performed admirably. So I want to
appreciate, express my appreciation to the department
for sending them out there to do right for Alaskans. You guys did good.
Senator Tobin. Thank you, thank you Mr. Chairman. And
I echo Senator Keel's comments. However, I do have a question just because I'm
indicating that you're really being driven by data and so we are seeing an
increase in weather events and climate influence impacts to our community
infrastructure particularly our road systems and I'm just fascinated by this
idea of how you are using the information you
are collecting and gleaning to inform responsive design for future DOT
installations or infrastructure projects. Through the chair Senator Tobin
We have several slides on that as we go forward here
But it's one where we're both elevating the expertise that we have in the department as well as bringing in new ideas from outside
So we've spent a fair amount of time
working out with our research program to
Take a look at ideas that might work in The Lore 48 figure out if they can work for Alaska
And then start to recognize where those holes in our information systems are so for example areas where We Have Limited
communication, we might have limited insight, stretches of highway where we
might not have enough road weather information systems.
We're starting to try and find those holes and plug them so that we build that picture up continually.
Senator Rousher.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I was just wondering now, at mile 60 on 92 on the Glen Highway where the mudslide is.
do I think it might have a little bit but when it really does this year
will I find it under flooding, wash outs, landslides or other emergencies?
It's one the way to look in the future. I see how that's uh
thank you. Yeah through the chair uh senator
Rauscher I uh some of these defy classification and yet we respond all
the same but um if if you do want uh we can have uh
Specifically about that event, if you'd like, otherwise happy to provide you more later.
We're always prepared at certain locations where we know there are perennial issues,
and in many of those cases, as we've previously talked, we're seeking projects that seek to remedy
that site because it's perennial, and we want to keep that maintenance issue from reoccurring the
Your quarter actually has multiple areas where we need mitigation measures to keep maintenance from reoccurring regularly.
Well, maybe as a slide goes on, we'll find a chance for him to come up.
Thank you.
Thank You.
Please continue.
For the record, Christine Langley.
So as part of our efforts over the last year,
really working towards predictive analysis. So we've been ingesting real-time conditions,
whether those are traffic speeds, signal timing and signal backup,
weather information that's coming in, and starting to use those to look forward.
So that instead of recognizing that the public is calling in and letting us
know it's snowing, we know that snow is on the way. It's headed and we can start doing that resource
Along with that, we've started to work closer with some of our partners.
We have developed a very good working relationship. We already had a good
working relationships.
We've made it better over the last year with the National Weather Service.
We started share with them what we need to know looking forward,
so it's not only just the event and what's coming, it is what those temperatures
might change to after the fact in the next two to three days.
designated areas, they will get on calls with us and help us understand what's
coming, answer specific questions. We're working closer with some of our other
law enforcement partners around the state, any of the groups that have eyes out on
the roadway and can let us know what conditions they're seeing and what
's going on. And then we're starting to use these tools to proactively alert our
staff and leadership and to help make decisions going into the future.
In addition to that, we're able to use satellite communication more and more.
So for the first time,
we were able watch a vehicle,
one of our vehicles work its way all the way up the Dalton Highway,
all way back down.
That's area we have not had communication in the past.
We've not have visibility into,
and these tools are allowing us to not only know the real-time conditions,
but to be able visibly see what the operator is seeing.
This allows us provide them support as well as to get an idea of what those conditions
back towards that a picture's worth a thousand words.
All of these efforts go to supporting
smarter, safer, winter operations.
So winter operation is about safety for all transportation users, while it's very
important to see that
plow truck on the road. There are many individuals out there that are using our
transportation system in many ways.
In 2025, we had nearly 1.2 million users reach out to 511 and look for conditions.
And on that website, they can find images.
They can fine real-time traffic speeds.
They find low-bridge notifications.
They could be alerted for school buses, depending on what part of the state they live in.
We can see from the feedback we're getting from public that this is very important to
them.
They want to see it updated in a timely manner.
They wanna see the conditions put out there.
Affirmation for us that they are using it and it's worth our investment.
We also are increasing our ability to do that reporting that feeds into our system such as 511
from various areas. We've deployed many phones to our operators. This allows us to know where
those vehicles are going. You can see those on our winter operations dashboard.
time period, you know, eight hours, 16 hours 24 hours and see whether or not
a plow has gone by that area and this is helping the public be able to make safe
decisions for themselves. In addition to that, we're just let me stuff you one
for one second. Thank you so much. This is amazing. Could you curate the images
that we see in this slide for us a little bit so that the Republican
Chair Berkman definitely, okay, so on the lower left what we are seeing is
Hold on
This is an area outside of Trapper Creek
So this is a area that doesn't historically have good communication and yet it's also a
Rather rural location. So if you went out into this area
the likelihood that you're going to immediately call someone for assistance that someone's going
to happen by might be less than you'd see in other more urban areas of Alaska.
Based on what you are seeing on 511 in this location, you can see that plow vehicles are out
and you tell which direction they are traveling at this moment so you know if they're on their way
On the left slide, if you see the little dots above the plow truck that is on towards the right,
that series of breadcrumbs that shows you where they've traveled in the last two hours.
And so this is what's going on out there right now type of information.
On right hand side, we have our winter operations dashboard.
This, what we're looking at here is the Anchorage and Matt Sioux area.
Depending on where you zoom in, you'll immediately have the appropriate R-Wiz cameras on the left show up and
On the right you can distinguish the different plows
based on color which also represents time if it was zoomed in it'd be much more intuitive to look at but you
Can see the path that the plow has traveled you?
can see that time that it passed by a certain point and you
Can use the bottom buttons to? Look at what's happened in the last hour. What's happening in last 12 hours 36 hours?
It also identifies the priority level of the roads,
which allows you to kind of see,
you know, if it doesn't look like it's been plowed yet,
but maybe it is a priority three road,
you can have some understanding that it
is on the way.
Our goal with this is to not only let people know what is going on out there,
be more transparent, but also if all of us are in here today and we are busy
and head to the airport after this,
I don't necessarily know where that plow has been, but this allows me to look in there and see, oh, plough passed by in the last two hours.
I feel comfortable traveling that road at this point.
Excellent. Thank you. Good luck.
And Mr. Chairman, Andy Mills for the record. Right now I subscribe to, I think, Facebook groups of...
Every jurisdiction represented at this committee where you crowd people crowdsource hey,
I'm driving this morning
What is the road like and that's the typical way in which I think most communities they have their kind of group about the
Road they're concerned on and want to
Paying other folks who are on that road where this again is additional tools directly from the agency providing that service to try and give them accurate
information and timely information so
Again Christine Langley for the record can we go back for one more second
So, the other thing that we are working towards with this is integrating this data is going
to allow us to do that historical look back at what happened during an event.
You know, in the heat of the moment, we're all responding as fast as we can, but there's
lessons to be learned in how we allocated the resources, how fast we got out on the
Repeat pattern was because it continued to snow and these tools will allow us to do that historical analysis once things quiet down
And we can make some decisions in preparation for the next event
Tech is fun tech is shiny it takes training and so that's one that we're working hard on
We want to be able to use these digital tools and they take effort
across our part to make sure that we're aware of how to
use them, that the public is aware how
to us them.
We've recently started, or on the way,
is a system called Samsara.
We used a research grant and some various other funds, federal
dollars,
that were able bring in systems in all three regions.
SamSara is camera mounted on
window screen of the equipment, whether that is a light duty truck or a grater, and with that
we're able to see, for example, things like what's going on on the Dalton Highway, along with
picking up real-time weather conditions. What is the rate that we are dispensing sand at? What
is, you know, is it the blade up or down at this time? And we were working towards training our
staff on how to use those and integrating them into our systems. Senator Raucher, thank you.
I was wondering, since you mentioned is the plow up or down, right?
I get a lot of calls and they say to me, George, I can't believe it, the Plow truck was going
down the road and the plot was not going down.
Okay, so can you give us reasons why that may happen, you know, because if you're out
the particular area, you're a long way from Palmer or you are a
long away from wherever. Could you give us reasons so I could
relay that next time and reasons why it may or may not
because I have no idea. So I'll take this one, Andy Mills for
the record and you have behind us again, M&O professionals
that will probably do a better job at giving you more of an
answer but I would put out, I've seen
requests where folks say I don't understand why that pow is up when it's
going along and I know from some of those legislative requests that I've
responded to it is largely that that resource is going to another area they're
not dropping the blade because this the area that they are going through is
either not a state road in many cases it can be and so the blad is not needed to
be down at that time if you leave your blade down all the time it actually wears
the Blade faster and believe it or not we go through blades quite fast and they
they cost. In addition to that I know that the M&O folks will probably have
some other answers as to why, but I
know some folks have complained about seeing the truck just sitting on the
side and the person out.
and why weren't they plowing the road at the time and when I chased that one down in the
Anchorage area it was they were clearing the the snow from the side of their lights so that they
were visible to traffic that that person was performing a safety check on their equipment it
was perfectly valid for them to be pulled over but a constituent of course was very angry to see
a plow not ploughing so oftentimes and they'll provide you perhaps more context there are good
It can be frustrating in those situations, but often there's good reason.
All right, thank you.
Again, for the record, Christine Langley.
So as we bring on these tools and these sources of information, we are building our own capacity
for winter operations as well as increasing safety with winter operation.
We are about to release two new tools. One of them is called drive-wise. It is geared towards
alerting on what is up ahead whether that is bridge height, rapid slowdown in traffic movement,
steep descent, various other pieces that they might be affected when they're out on the roadway
to give them a heads up as to the conditions they are seeing. This will be free to operators to use
and commercial vehicle fleets to us and we're excited to add that one more layer into that
In addition to that, we're going to,
I'm sorry, I lost my place.
All right, wait.
Next slide.
So we keep going.
So, sorry.
Using these tools, we're starting to create digital twins.
So we know connected and autonomous vehicles are on their way.
We're already seeing some of the implications of that.
And so using these tool,
we are able to not only be picking up data
for maybe an immediate need,
but also data that we can then share with other groups
within the department for cost efficiency.
So some these are tools that were
Putting onto our winter maintenance vehicles are actually giving fleet telematics in condition to our state equipment fleet folks so
that they know whether that vehicle needs to come back in.
Does it need maintenance at this time?
It's going to help us with efficient use of our supplies.
Also towards the idea of how many greater blades we're going go through in a year.
We end up with emergencies and events and so this is one where every day our winter operations
Are getting us ready to support these emergencies
And events our efforts at being agile and resourceful allowed us to bring on staff from all over the state in
Support of the west coast storms
We're working on I think next week is going to have an install of an AI
managed pedestrian light in Kodiak.
This is going to alert traffic to a pedestrian
as they move across the crosswalk.
We're very excited to see this go in.
It's a pilot project for us to how it works.
In addition, we're going
to implement what are gonna be called DOT alerts.
This a two-way communication system that is geo-fenced.
So that means if, for example,
there's prolonged closure on the Seward Highway,
us.
DPS other individuals who need to communicate with folks out on the transportation system will be able to go in there
Locate an area. We're not going to blast all of the state of Alaska and
Initiate a conversation that people can opt in with so that we can let them know what the conditions are they can
Let us know if they're running out of fuel or they cold do they need support of some kind and we're we looking forward to the ways that that's going
To improve safety when we do have these events
Senator Tobin
Thank You mr. Chairman
I'm very curious by this AI lighting system, and so I am hopeful that we can just take a quick moment and delve a little bit more in.
So I' m familiar with leading lights or lights such as on Northern Lights where I can press the button and it flashes and tells everyone I m about to cross the roadway.
Can you talk a bit about this technology, why choose it, is it cheaper than some of these other more mechanical options?
In this particular instance, this is a research project on our part and a donation from a vendor, and so it's very cheap.
We do expect it to be a cheaper solution in that it can be mounted after the fact onto existing infrastructure.
This is going to open up the areas that we can put it in place.
It is, a unit that is mounted relatively up high.
non-signalized crosswalk.
So this means places where we don't have a stop light,
for example, we want to decrease safety
by confusing individuals with more lights going off.
The piece that's different from the system
that you're talking about is that,
you can imagine almost as if it's a flashlight from up high,
and that flashlight is going to follow the individual
as they cross the cross walk.
you know entity on the road system is aware and
Sees that individual lit up until they're all the way across and if I'm if
I may anti-mills for the record one of the primary differences in this approach
Which was very appealing and we can send a video to you all to watch it in in an example case at least
For if you've seen flags at crosswalks people have to grab and cross
the RRF
B, I think it's a rapid repeating flashing beacon,
or something along that lines for the acronym.
But it is one where you press affirmatively,
and it starts flashing.
We have several here in Juneau.
They're another part of the state.
That requires the pedestrian to take an action
for that safety feature.
In this case, my understanding is that the technology works without activation by the individual,
which is a significant difference to test out the efficacy of that, and also does it
work in our conditions well.
So this, to me, this is really exciting pilot innovation to check on.
And if it does work here, Anchorage is one of those areas where there will be consideration
on where to use for pedestrian safety.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I'm thinking, you know, we often have brownouts and other types of things and so there's
a curiosity I have particularly around that component. And then also, people come in all
different sizes and especially if this technology has been used previously or has
been piloted in other places. Does it pick up kids well? What about animals?
Just a little bit. I am just very curious. It sounds very intriguing in terms of
Through the Chair, Senator Tobin, all great questions.
This has only been used in one other state, so Alaska is leading the way.
One of the reasons we chose Kodiak is because we did need a pilot project where
we had a little fewer individuals crossing.
We had little more freedom to take a look at it, see how it goes.
One the things with innovating is it's not perfect on day one, right, or let me restate them.
It is rarely perfect one day, occasionally we might get there.
We were not, we know that we wanted to get them into the Anchorage area.
We decided we'd start with something smaller so that
we could use it as a test case.
I know we have one of our M&O folks down there who is going to bring in their grandson
to help us do some of that testing.
Yes. We hope to have this install happening next week.
So we will definitely be sharing information about it.
Well I'm very hopeful that it will be installed before this summer as I will
be in Kodiak for the Pioneers of Alaska Conference and I plan to try it and see
if it sees me. I believe we're moving to a section I get to present on and is of
course in here primarily for The Chairman however Brian is a conversation to
have anywhere in the state.
But it was one that you, Mr. Chairman, called out specifically for us to address,
and so I put a series of slides in here, and do expect for
us have a few back and forth should you have anything to ask on this.
I would reiterate for anyone watching this that doesn't have the background and
or to keep in mind as we're talking this through the subject, anti-icing and deicing.
terminologies to distinguish anti-icing, of course, is a pre-treatment of a road
where you go before there is ice and snow on it and you treat that road to mitigate
the potential bonding of snow and ice to the surface. And then of
course de-icing is if there's something already on that surface that you need to
tackle or deal with. And so wanted to distinguish those two terms and then also
try to, I think I've mentioned this in the past, but wanted
to give that we have tried alternatives to the sodium chloride that
we currently use in many portions where we're using brine. Beat juice was one,
which is quite fascinating. Natural product does come with some side
Sacalaskas, I believe northern region, had fun with that for a little bit, trying it.
My understanding is that it's sticky, it has a dark color, the public had a reaction to
saying something that they did not expect of a different color on the road, and it is
more expensive than, you'll find the theme here is largely if it more costly in these
tough budget times, we're obviously looking for the most cost-effective solution to ensure
safety.
calling it the alternative is not as attractive, it's rendered from an animal by-product.
I believe pig is the byproduct, so it has an odor to it,
it causes vegetation to grow quite well, which of course means additional mitigation on vegetation
control, and so there are some drawbacks even though it is an effective alternative.
lower freeze point, but so there's differences aside from cost. There's also
the range in which you would use that product as an alternative. I put on the
right-hand side here, unless there was a question, there on
the right hand side, just as a reminder that there is a flowchart logic to when
our operators do use, Brian, and I understand from conversations,
There are folks who disagree when operators use it, but I wanted to be sure you knew it was not a finger in the wind and
Purely discretionary. They are using this this or something like it to make a determination of when to utilize brine in
conjunction with forecasts and I understand
pavement temperature readings and such
Senator Rousher. Yeah through the chair. So
So the beet juice the urea
they're explored
So what's the go-to for both anti-iasing and de-icing, and I guess the question here is
corrosiveness. How much corrosive are each one of those two vehicles because a lot of people are
swearing up and down. It's I'll be getting home just with a seat on top of four wheels by the time
through the chair, Senator Rauscher.
So that is the point of having part of this conversation.
And in a future slide we talk about a Brian Litt review.
And so that that's one of the things that MNO attempts
to mitigate by putting inhibitors in Brian,
which I will note again for folks who are concerned
about Brian and I understand that conversation,
An inhibitor is not used in the solid salt, so that you don't use the corrosion inhibitor
in a solid product.
And you asked initially what is the common used product?
Sodium chloride is typically the most utilized product, which I understand is effectively
But you can use calcium chloride and magnesium chloride, which work at different temperature ranges have a different effectiveness, but are more corrosive, and therefore
would be used in targeted applications, or we would defaulting to sodium chloride.
I can let each operator, each of our MNO folks that come up give you a sense of what they're using and where,
but it varies.
areas where we have not established the, we've not had the capital cost to establish the infrastructure necessary to
render the sodium chloride into the 23.3% mixture of water and
product to be effective in a brine truck that then applies it to the road, to this hand.
All right, thank you.
Mr. Chairman, moving to next slide.
I tried resisting using this before, because it does have a product name on it, but I also
wanted to be sure I gave sort of credit as to we did not create this, so I wanted
to give you an example and I call it a marketing piece on purpose because obviously any vendor
is attempting to sell their product.
for why the department and departments across other states
are using brine as opposed to solid salt.
So in this, and again, this is an example,
time frame wise, I'm not 100% sure when this was done,
so dollar figures,
I don't have the background information on this.
But you can see that we've said if you use
liquid brine, which is the solid salt rendered into a liquid form, that you are
using overall less product for the same net effect on a per-lane mile basis. You
can make that comparison there and you can see from an anti-icing. So we've
tried to explain if you put a solid-salt down, usually with sand or maybe on
its own, you generally have to use more product to get the
unless you render it and spray that application on the road.
Again, here it notes the application speed.
I think that's going to vary on equipment.
But if you are going faster or slower,
there is a bounce in scatter with solid materials as opposed to spraying it.
Again the MNO staff can talk to you about our particular application methods.
in multiple conversations on the Keynite Peninsula,
talk about the need for additional equipment and operators
to achieve the same sort of clearing standard
if we were to eliminate brine use entirely,
because you need to make additional passes on that same road
to keep it in condition.
And in the future slide, you'll see if you do not get
to a road to pre-treat it, traffic can cause
snow to compact into an ice that is then quite difficult to get off the road and
Everyone's lived in the state long enough to know that's a fact. It's about when you get to the Road
As to how much that that compacts down and what you might be able to give up with a blade
I'll pause here in case there's question on this line
Okay, so I pull up again the
spotlighting for the keen eye peninsula just to be sure I'm putting this on the record for
the for Chairman given the request that we have been
Reduced we did reduce the amount of brine used on The Keen Eye Peninsula per again
Assembly or council. I am not sure which one it's assembly, right? Mr.
resolutions and also considerable public input that we received, and being responsive to that
public local input, we did make reductions, but we are still maintaining brine use on the sterling,
the sewer, the keen-eye, spur, k-beach, a portion of k beach road in britjaxas. You'll note that's
primarily the higher speed roads. And where you have higher-speed roads, of course, speed,
equals the potential for safety concerns.
And so for the department in particular,
making sure that we keep the highest speed roads
as safe as possible is trying to fulfill
the mission of safety for public.
I know that the retort then is,
if there's corrosion on the car, that's a safety issue.
And I believe that that why we have sought
to reduce Ryan use on on The Peninsula
to balance both safety on
the roads and responsible use of our
limited resources to accomplish the task of.
So one more slide.
OK, so this is the I want to give credit where credit is due.
This is The Senator's photo, Senator Bjorkman's
photo.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for this.
I appreciate it.
It's a beautiful photo on its own.
I did mark the roads.
Mackie Lake is, of course, the one you're looking down
and Sterling Highway is in front.
And of course, this illustrates quite perfectly.
Mackey Lake is a priority three road.
Priority three Road means we're taking care
of the higher speed of volume one and two roads first.
You will not see a DOT clearing activity
on this priority, three roads until the one,
priority one in priority two road are clear
and the event has stopped.
And so for folks to understand,
if you do not pre-treat a surface,
you can get this effect, which we described earlier,
speed bumps, speed humps, washboarding,
I'm not sure what we want to call it.
But that is a logical result of not either not getting
the blade on it sooner,
which again is the priority three road.
We have other roads that operators are on first,
or being able to mitigate before that pack
binds down to the road
Senator Russia
So thank you through the chair
Not my area anymore
But in my old district area. I had Delta Junction and from Delta junction to Fairbanks
There's a lot of this. Okay, hard and I said looks a little bit more slick than this
so
We didn't get out there with a blade soon enough
or what was the answer to why this happened?
I might also ask through the chair, Senator Russell,
I may actually ask Mr. Sackler to come up and assist me,
but my cheeky answer, to start with, of course,
is we live in Alaska and do expect that winter is going
to result in our roadways having some of the pack
that you would see on here, especially on the longer routes.
Since you brought up a very specific area might as well have the expert answer the question
For the record Jason sack Laschus nor the region maintenance and operations chief through the chair senator Russia
Predominately what you see between Delta and Fairbanks some of those issues is we've had multiple rain events over the last couple of years
What we have is
freezing pavement temperatures. We all know that interior is quite a bit colder.
So what we're seeing there is basically the rains hitting the roadways and
freezing pretty much instantaneously. With a brine usage program, we do have
brin usage programs in Fairbanks, but really doesn't extend outside Fairbank's proper.
And the primary reason for that is
When we install brine the lowest temperature normally we
install around Fairbanks area is about 20 degrees above zero.
So really we stop I'll say you know throughout the winter maintenance time
frames we usually stop brin application really around you
know September October-ish because we get into the negative temperatures we
get freezing temperature
freezing pavement temperatures, and if you apply brine during those temperatures what you can
actually do is create chemical icing. So you're actually applying and it's freezing to the roadway.
So in these circumstances a lot of times what do you see between Delta and Fairbanks or in the
interior, your CS grooving the ice quite often with basically our plow trucks and underbody blades
and also using quite a bit of sand. A lot that sand is not treated with
salt or any type of additive, although it can be pre-treated slightly when it's applied with a pre wetting type material,
and that is a brine usage, and the intent there is that with
pre-wet it actually applies a little bit of the brine material to the sand as it's
being dispersed which makes it wet and it
actually freezes a sand in place. So what you're trying to do is get that sand to
stick and stay longer in the treads where the traffic is traveling.
Just a quick follow-up. Scarfire, how how effective are you at that point you
you know, now you've got the highs that you see in this photo here, and they're actually a little
flatter and quite more and patchy. How effective is Scarfire at this point?
through the chair, center of Russia.
I will say the scar fires are pretty effective
at creating grooves and alignment for traction.
So that's primarily why they do that.
Obviously, as you wear the road surface down in the ice,
you do slowly remove it over time.
The other thing that we do is we
do have a couple tools also called,
basically they're a little bit of a roadway profiler.
And they are a set of teeth on a mandrel drum
that are actually used in front of the plow truck.
that does is it actually tries to retexture
the entire surface of the roadway
and actually remove some of, I'll say,
undulations like you're seeing in these circumstances.
We only have a couple of those units
because they are quite expensive to run
and the wear blades are pretty expensive on them as well.
So they're only used during certain circumstances, so.
Well, thank you very much.
I appreciate it.
Yep, and thank-
Thank you.
Mr. Mills and Mr.. Sakhalaskis. I can't take credit for this photo
I'm much like the photo we looked at last year from almost the same exact spot looking the other direction through the correct windshield that was not mine
This this Photo was taken by a guy by the name of CEO runs from so I'll give him credit. For for that
by and large aside from the damage done to vehicles and
The environment by brine
People were used to having roads that were white and snow-packed in the winter.
White roads in winter reflected light, made moose much more visible, had pretty good traction,
and that was just something that people on the Kena Peninsula and other parts of Alaska
were use to driving on, and the roads did not look like this before brine treatment.
is not allowing us to go back to those kinds of conditions,
is that just a rosy way of thinking,
because I clearly remember driving on roads
that were white, packless snow,
and they didn't look like the cratered surface of the moon.
What's different?
I'll say Jason Cyclopsus for the record,
Madam Chair, be welcome.
I will say I've seen it worked in maintenance for probably the last 10 to 15 years, grew
up in Bournon, Alaska.
And what I do see is a lot of our temperature changes and fluctuations is changing some
of the response to roadways.
I would say we still have in northern regions still pretty cold climate, you'll drive up
there and you will see all say snowpack road ways.
I'll say won't remove the snow from the roadway. We do try to to keep a bare surface if possible,
but I do note on roads like the Stease Highway, Elliott Highway running north, those kind of things.
I notice that we do have snowpack on the roadways or there could be underlying ice on them too.
And if they're sanded well, grooved well they do produce a good traction for the traveling public.
So I think it depends on really how the winter events
Deposit the snow the temperatures at which the pavement are at a lot of varying factors go into what can produce the condition of the roadway
And how we may respond to it. So it's not probably a
single
Word answer to give to you, but I will say it kind of depends upon how the snowball or
Precipitation hits the road with temperatures are and how are responding during those operations, so
Senator Tobin. Thank you. Mr. Chairman
So I'm curious as we look toward and I know you have some slides on maintenance and operations and you
have just indicated that you've been with the department for going on almost two decades.
How are you preparing for the changing conditions? What has been the input that
you provided to your supervisors and to the folks who do maintenance materials and equipment
Yeah, through the chair, Senator Rialkman, sorry, I will say we've looked at
Primarily focus on our brine program. We haven't used brin. I'll say in the state for an extended time period meaning like 20 years or it's been within the last probably 10 or 15 years that we've been looking at that.
We've then keeping up with technology with regards to the anti corrosion and using it. Also trying to facilitate public comments on it and attend to those needs because it also corrosive to our equipment to so we want to adhere to that
We look at different cutting edges, tools that are out there.
We try to attend conferences, be part of national programs.
There are what people may not know that there is actually whole committees of
the West Coast committees that actually do.
I'll say when our snows states get together and do research projects on whether it is
how material is binding to the roadways or its equipment, how they're removing materials.
So I will say we're trying to tackle it with regards to several different things,
whether its a chemical type application or a mechanical type
application both with attachments or specialized equipment to do that.
So trying keep up with the industry, reviewing what's available and trying those things out
a lot of other technologies with her reason, so.
Thank you.
Please continue.
And Andy Mills for the record.
I would add Senator Tobin that we also, just as I mentioned,
one of our leadership team meetings
that We held at the University of Alaska Fairbanks
did have the Alaska Climate Research Center folks come in
and speak to our entire leadership
team about, you know,
How do we grapple with changing conditions?
And so there are lots of threads that we pull on to make sure we're understanding what
resources are available for us to understand what the future looks like, so.
My last slide on Brian is on the, there was a literature report, literature review that
initiate, and this was of course was a statewide effort, not just something for the Keyni Peninsula.
And it utilized some research funds to conduct a review of literature and also an internal
sort of resourcing of corrosion concerns in Alaska and mitigation measures.
And that was done with, you can see on the cover,
I tried to keep it readable, Laura Faye,
who is a resource that we have utilized a few times.
And she is considered a sort of, I don't know about lead,
but she certainly is very competent in the area
given her work at,
I think it's the University of Montana Arctic Maintenance.
Anyway, she's an authority in that area.
brought her into this work and produced this report.
And it does also contain fact sheets and some guidance
for both the operators, our department,
and also the public on ways to mitigate Brian.
I will mention, because the conversation usually ends
up being less Brian, more of what the Matu Valley is doing,
where they do not utilize Brian?
There I want to be sure both from the resourcing conversation of what it would take to get the Kenai Peninsula there, but also
Folks are kind of considering one side of the equation,
but added sand is another that we want
to Be sure we're highlighting as you increase sand use which could be one offset to brine use that you you do
Clog storm drains that does actually impact the health of a vehicle by chipping and whatnot
So there's there is always trade-offs in any strategy. We attempt to approach
So I'm just making sure I mention it as a
we're always weighing the body of
Interest evidence and resourcing to make the best call we can
I've been advancing now to the central region slides where
Burrell, we'll take this over.
Good afternoon committee. My name is for the record, Burell Nickison, Central Region, Maintenance and Operations Manager.
Thank you again for having us.
Please to present this information and do stop me if you have any questions.
I'm just going to take you through some of the past fiscal years, as well as currently
what's going on with our central region, snow and ice removal this winter.
So this is going be somewhat of a regurgitation of some information on there.
So again, stop me if you have questions.
So we have contracted services as was mentioned before.
Mr. Sakhalakis, who just spoke before me, I believe was running these contracts approximately
one to two years in northern region before central region started them. We've started
them three years ago in Anchorage and then two year ago, or excuse me this is the second
In FY 25, our contracted costs were approximately 550,000.
FY 26, we are currently running expenses of about 164 K.
That, if you are paying attention to what is happening in Anchorage today, is going to change.
We are going be calling out contractors today.
So, and there's the number of times that we've called them out.
But that goes up and down, and just to give you a sense for how these contractors, how
these contracts are handled, they are receiving an on-call amount just because they're waiting
by the phone for us.
But then they also receive different, or they'll also submit different expenses for when they
are called out.
Senator Rousher. Yeah, thank you. I appreciate time through the chair. So
this is the first time I've sat on on
Right on transportation.
So for the folks at home and for myself, I just heard you mention
For so if you could tell us what all the time
limitations are to each one of these road classifications if you're attacking a
road one or two or three or four just so we all understand when and where you
may or may not show up. Through the chair again for the record
Burrell-Nikison right here and he just pulled up a slide if
you can see it priority level one I'm gonna have to read it from here I
12 hours, and then priority level two is 18.
And then, priority Level 3, I don't have my glasses on.
I'll take this one, Andy Mills for the record.
Priority Level three is 24 hours.
Priority level four is 30 hours and red
is not maintained during the winter time.
That's typically a closed road or some road
that's not maintain during wintertime.
remind folks when they read those time frames that's not the time to expect
service that the times when the event ends
and our target to get to it so if an event
starts and it lasts for 48 hours these time
frames can be appended onto the end of that amount is
is how we a little complicated but to make sure we reinforce when we're
talking about these priorities we'll quick follow up on that one
Sometimes you have a lingering little snow for days.
When does the event and in your opinion
for talking about a snowstorm?
For the record again,
Burrell-Nikison, Central Region Maintenance
and Operations Manager through the chair, Senator Rauscher.
It's largely determined by the superintendent
and the maintenance folks out there
on when it is kind of closed.
So, if there's significant snowfall or significant water coming down from the skies, then, yeah,
the event continues, but once it tapers off, usually the superintendent of that area makes the call.
Moving on but actually if you would let me sidetrack because I believe there was two questions
That I just now remembered that may need to be answered for central region
So if he would allow me through the chair senator Rauscher you asked earlier
What would the muddy Creek situation be presented as if we had an emergency?
me personally
And I think the my my chief in the back we'd probably call that a landslide
Yeah, and in fact a bit more details about that. We actually have drawn that area a number
of times and part of the mountain has actually landslideed approximately five miles up Creek
of that one.
We're quite far since you brought that up. Thank you very much. I appreciate it.
the area way out over time whether it's weeks, months or years or decades. So do you see an end
to this somewhere from what you've seen with your drone? We're in for a long spell here. I just want
to get an understanding of how drastic we are looking at an area that's completely sending mud
Reaching the highway at a point. So how long do you expect that to happen?
Through the chair
Senator Rousher, we have looked at the amount of material that slid on that mountain and it's quite significant
We would anticipate that it is going to come down for a number of years
to Come and
It's probably going get more steady as it does don't I
I apologize I don't know how long you've been in that area but haven't seen that
area over a number of years. It is getting more frequent. I will say this whole all the events
To try and create a bridge over that and the idea is is that that would allow the material to free flow as well
As allow maintenance equipment to get underneath that bridge and take care of the situation so that it doesn't
It doesnít get blocked
There was one more question to that Andy had pointed out so through the chair we use sodium chloride throughout
throughout central region
And we utilize that for both Brian as well as, as Jason mentioned when we mix it with sand.
Thank you all, so I appreciate it through the chair.
No questions, I'll go ahead and move forward.
I just wanted to include this slide and this information here because Anchorage over the last few years has received a number of complaints about sidewalks.
discuss that here in another meeting as well too but this gives you a sense of how much we
how, much the anchorage and matsu and peninsula actually have for equipment clearing sidewalks
obviously it's it not a lot and these things kind of move slow i believe it was
two years ago we went through
Excuse me, two seasons of pins for our snow clearing snow blowers on the sidewalks.
That's how bad it got.
So these things are kind of fragile pieces equipment, but they're very valuable and they are utilized quite a bit.
So let's just give you a sense of what we have.
Senator Tobin.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
So, I know last year we talked about a better priority plan for a sidewalk clearing.
Unfortunately,
I have heard from some of my constituents that they're still not seeing state.
sidewalks cleared seven, eight, nine days after a snow event. I myself as many folks know like to
walk everywhere and so I walked to a doctor's appointment at regional from my home in Fairview
and then on to trying to get to Costco which that is a state cleared road and it was not cleared.
I ended up having to walk actually right there on 15th and was very scary and
either more equipment or be more effective and efficient in the sidewalk clearing.
There's a lot of folks who really enjoy using our beautiful assets along our roadways.
And I want to ensure that they're safe to use.
Through the chair, Burrell-Niggison, Senator Tobin,
we have.
We recognized, I think, some of the issues that got brought up during those big events,
those two years in a row.
We've spent a lot of time talking with the municipality, both the last administration
and this administration.
We're trying to share resources.
We are trying share event responses.
We're working hard to get new equipment and new
equipment comes with the cost.
And then we have to find staff that
can jump into that and be prepared.
So a lot of this, well, not a lotta it,
but some of it is non-perm employees.
So just making sure that we
have a competent staff on board and keeping that staff.
And again, getting them trained up.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Well, please let us know what we can do.
I know there's been a lot of conversation around
how the state can support winter maintenance and anchorage,
what resources we might be able to get for you.
I understand that we are in severe
and tight fiscal constraints.
However, this is a core function of our state
is ensuring our neighbors are able
to be where they need to safely.
Particularly, again, in my case,
trying to go to a doctor's appointment.
Those are things that
we want to ensure residents are
able access and.
If the barrier is snow and us having the inability to remove it effectively and efficiently, then that is a cost we must bear.
Through the chair, we will certainly do that.
Andy responds to and forwards a lot of that information.
And myself and actually my chief in the back here, Kirk Warren,
respond to just as much as well as the folks in field.
So certainly will.
and for the record Andy Mills on that same point,
the little over 5 million in reduction last year
and then the FY26 is one thing that I know the
FY27 budget at least as proposed is seeking to address
so that we can make sure that sidewalks,
which we all know in the full list of all the things
that operators are working on,
because it doesn't take a CDL,
there are more opportunities for us
to try and find solutions,
If you have a CDO, we need to keep you on the roads and clearing those,
which we also get plenty of input that they want to see better service on those as well.
So, but we are, I think by making sure folks understand that the supplementary
contracts that we have in place include sidewalks, priority three,
priority four and sidewalks.
That's meant to be a resource for us to try and pick that up while operators may be out on
the priority ones and twos.
I agree that that needs to be a priority we stay on top of so
Senator kill I have a question. Oh, thank you. Mr. Chairman. I was just gonna let mr. Mills know the same question is coming for South Coast
So this this slide right here is going to kind of discuss what we just got done talking about and that's the difficulty of
Plowing a sidewalk once we get to a road
And if I may, I think one thing that I failed to mention, and I know I've been here prior years,
and so I have mentioned in prior year's, but not now, is that we actually have a different priority system for Anchorage sidewalks.
And Christine, who spoke prior to me, her...
I don't want to put her on the spot, but I believe her folks are expanding that.
And that's going to go into Juneau, Fairbanks, Matsu, Kenai pathways and sidewalks and things like that,
so there actually is, if you jump on that DOT website, a different priority website for sidewalks.
So in with regards to this slide, this kind of gives you an idea for some of the problem areas that we have.
To kind of get a sense we have very limited priority or very
limited right-of-way on Minnesota Fireweed, Seward Highway
between 36th 15th and then Northern Lights Boulevard in Benson
Fifth Avenue, Northern lights on Benson. We
we can feel quite a number of comments on that one too because the businesses are there
and they're trying to clear those lots too but in these kinds of situations what we have to do
is we actually have plow the snow up onto the sidewalk and then come back and pull it with a
grater and we cannot do that until we blow it into trucks off the road. So we need to have our truckers
do some with our own with their own trucks, but a lot of times we can contract that out.
So that can sometimes take time and it really just depends on where our priorities are.
But these just give an idea of where we have problem events, sidewalks, roads.
One other situation that we've been trying to work on recently is the snow dump
availability again
Going back to we been talking a lot with the municipality of Anchorage
They've Been doing a great job of sharing some of their snow dumb sites with us
The state of Alaska in Anchorage only has one snow dump and it's at O'Malley and Old
Seward Highway.
We are looking to expand that and we're working through permitting, through the municipality
and were pretty close on that.
But the good thing is when we work with the municipalities, we get to share their lots
They've expanded and they're building a new one so maybe some of their old ones will open up for us so we'll see what the future brings.
Just some different challenges.
I've been talking a lot about Anchorage here,
but I wanted to talk about our other districts.
Brian, specific issues.
Again, this is what Andy talked about.
We're only using Brian.
We'd like to use Brian on more locations,
but, I know the public expectation.
And so we've cut that back.
This year, we have seen an extreme difficulty
retaining operators, which is making training of
of new positions, very difficult. When you don't have positions that have expertise in a number of
years behind the driver, behind behind wheel, it can be kind of difficult, Matsu specific area.
We had a wind event, a few of them actually. We've got a lot of repairs that we're still trying to catch up on.
Again, training new staff, Southwest, you all are familiar with the typhoon response.
That's still ongoing, utilization of the Bethel Airport for materials and things like that.
It has been, I know, great for that response, and then also the Bessel Tower is expected
to be closed there due to repairs for a number of months.
So we're going to see how flights in and out of Bethe will come, but it's not affecting
Senator Rauscher has a question.
Yeah, thank you, Chief Chair.
So 300,000 for repairs because of when, what are the,
I guess I want to understand what was damaged as far as the wind goes,
as fast as DOT is concerned.
Through the chair, Senator Rouscher, we had lighting damages,
some of our luminaires, some the stop.
stoplights, some a lot of our signage, we actually had some sheds that got blown down that we use
for storage of equipment. So all state all-state resources that just basically need to be replaced
and either by in-house or or purchase. And a follow-up question.
So this year we had a lautless snow.
A lot more wind granite. This is true. So we had a lot less snow. In fact, I don't even know if it even got here till about two weeks ago
I'm just gonna rough guess
So are we money ahead this year?
As far as the cost that we usually incur or moving snow
For and I am not talking specifically about anchorage. I sure there's an exception in this
math somewhere, but
The rest of the the rest the essential reason it seems like it's been a light year
Is your your particular region money ahead now as opposed to where it usually is about this time if so
If not just I just wonder how it works out through the chair
I don't know the answer to that, and I'm hopeful that you're going to let us get back to you on that.
Yeah, yeah, but I can say, I
can speak for the Anchorage situation only because I was on the phone with the superintendent earlier this morning,
and we're blowing through expenses,
yeah. And I would imagine with
the repairs due to all the wind damage, we are going probably even out,
but we'll see.
Through the chair. So where does central stop on the parks highway?
That would through the Chair that would be my post 163
63. Thank you very much
Thank You
And for the record Andy Mills mr. Chairman I see we have 10 minutes
left and quite a few more slides is there anything you would like us to jump to or
I think if we could jump too maybe the the equipment fleet and just talk about that briefly
we can have a part two at a date sometime soon if that works for all of you
we are I believe this Thursday and how the house transportation the other
a body's transportation committee.
So we would have to find the time that would work,
but certainly we'll end up finding some time, absolutely.
Well, if it's okay with the rest of the committee,
if you want to jump to the equipment fleet
or if there are other slides
that you'd like to chat about before we do that.
Can I ask a question that might help transition?
Absolutely.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Our.
prior presenter at Central Region had a slide about mentioned I think difficulty with
hiring and keeping people and training folks like Crazy
to do the work and it's technical work takes training.
We had and certainly as we head into mechanics there has been a long-running problem with the
a salary study released last year that said we're paying well more than we need to be
to attract these folks. We're up over 100% of the target.
What are you doing? What're you able to do? Any proposal to keep the people you train
so that we don't have to retrain constantly and we get the benefit of really expert operators
So, Annie Mills, I might let Mr. Sakalaska's take the operator piece and then I believe
Christy is calling in on the line so hopefully she'll be able to contribute for the SCF mechanic
piece.
For the record, Jason Saklaska is part of the Region Maintenance Chief.
Um, with regards to retention of equipment operators, um, we actually do have a slide in here that does show where we were at last year, uh, versus this year.
Um it was actually within some of my slide decks here was looking to kind of emphasize some
of the areas where,
we have seen some increased performance or some increase recruitment for equipment
operators.
Uh,
we've pretty much predominantly increased in quite a few districts,
um across the state.
Um but we still do struggle in isolated pockets for
equipment.
I find that a lot of that's in some of our remote communities.
I've got some those with regards to like Cordova.
For example, we're out west,
some our Cotsabue, Gnome type areas.
We've really got strong industry in those locations,
and also I'll say maybe a small population to select from.
So while we try to attract our operators,
sometimes we don't get the applicants in.
One of the things that we are doing,
programs and we are able to bring in new staff with regards to allowing them
CDL testing. And so they can get their license and we can train them internal.
Some of that's some position management for us that we have to be focused on to get those
kind of operations done. But we do have a statewide program in that.
And I will say a lot of the training funds are fortunately through our federal programs.
So not being born by our operating budget. So that is another also a good thing that
we are doing there. With regards to some of our other locations we
different types of operators that we do recruit for and what I mean by that is we
do have some specially trained I guess I'll say individual that more work at
airports require a little more credentials and those kind of things.
to attract in some of those locations we've been looking at flex time schedules or different shift
schedules more of a two on two off trying to track different personnel maybe out of what I'll say is
maybe some the larger communities and transitioning them to work in the remote communities on that
kind of schedule so more a travel in work your shift and then travel back out that costs a little
bit more for expense but we are able to keep some those positions filled in doing that so
So those are a couple of things that we're doing with regards to internally, operationally
for equipment operators, to try to attract, retain, and then work with them and grow them
within our department.
And Andy Mills for the record.
Christy tried in true number two at the State Equipment Fleet, or S.E.F. is on the phone,
she confirms.
I will add commentary-wise at least that, similar to the maritime industry, when you
it is difficult as far as the competitive nature
of a smaller recruitment pool.
We've heard this in several areas.
I anecdotally would think it's maybe somewhere
between the gig economy and folks,
having options at home or having the options.
The hands-on work,
we'd like to get more people into the hands on work.
And so, but I do think there are some
Headwinds in our modern times to getting more folks out there and getting their their hands a little grease on them
So of course, I'm here pushing papers rather than doing that myself. Maybe that's my next career move, but
Christie on the phone will give you the direct insight on The light and heavy duty mechanics at our state equipment fleet
Christie please state your name for the record welcome to Senate transportation
Thank you. My name is Christy Futrell. I'm a contracting officer with state equipment, please
Could you please provide your commentary based on mr. Mills prompt
Absolutely through the chair
We at City Credit Fleet have some of the same challenges with operators.
A lot of their vacancies that you'll see throughout for us are in a lot
of remote areas, so there's definitely some challenges there.
We have tried to do different schedules, two weeks on,
two week off, some locations we've had to provide housing to keep staff on.
So, logistically, a lot of the more remote areas are just really hard for us to keep
filled.
A lot as mechanical work we do now is also very technical.
So there's some training pieces that kind of go into that.
It just takes people a little longer to get on board and work on some of this newer style
equipment.
Send it around so I'd like to pop on that real quick. So I look at let's let slide 21
There you go, so you know, I think there's some
Sumilization to what you've been saying here. Yeah, you have a big pool of people
Matt soo you're down the one two vacancies, right?
so
You know acreage to vacancies out of 46
So then you get out a Valdez. Okay?
And so it's eight, eight vacancies and a 26.
So is it location, location?
Location?
What's, you know, I'm trying to understand,
just trying stay, because somebody was in my office
just the other day and they're going,
why is the past getting closed so much more often?
Okay, then it used to be, and I had no idea.
And I have no way it was getting more closed more
often than it use to being.
I don't even know if you do so.
But either way, is that part of the equation?
And if so, why is the eight so high?
So through the chair, Senator Rouscher,
Jason Cyclaskis for the record.
So within what you're reviewing here,
let me go over really just the slide real quick.
These are our district numbers.
So, within a district, you have several stations.
So one of things, and I can speak specifically to Valdez,
which also can translate to many of
the districts that are shown here.
I mentioned Cordova. Cordova is actually a station within our Valdez district. I specifically have,
I think, eight personnel there, and I have four or five vacancies in that location. So to look at
Valdiz as a district,
You can say they have eight positions vacant,
but one of my major locations that problem
is actually in Cordova.
So there's a little bit of skewed numbers in here
with what you guys are looking at.
If we were to break it down all the way
into station level, I think that would give us
the detail of a focused review on where those are.
We obviously know that within our department,
what we manage, and we try to keep the slide deck
somewhat short and condensed for easy understanding.
But our.
easy, I'll say display. With that though, you're going to get into nuances with some of those
to speak specifically to Thompson Pass. I'm not sure that I can say it is or is not closing more
or less. It really does depend on our winter and the winter events that are come at us.
We have done specifically a lot more outreach and communication because we did have meetings
with the public there. Try to understand what really Does impact the community and how long of
notice times they need.
So we've been a lot more proactive with regards
to either through our 5-1-one system,
our gov delivery system and those kind of things.
And some of that comes into the technology
that we're talking about,
trying to be more pro-active in forecasting our storms
and trying lead out with potential closure notices
or giving industry that.
That's kind, well, that's something that
we are doing now.
It's a little bit risky
because we not weather forecasters,
but we have a lotta information,
I guess I'll say overcome our capacities or close our roadways when those kind of conditions
occur. So we're trying to be a little more proactive in there. But overall, you'll see some of these
numbers, even like Western, most of my vacancy there is in kind actually known proper, not out
in Cotsview and those kinds of other locations. You've got station-specific focus vacancy that
directs the impact more to that community than it is the whole district. I hope that
numbers that there's a little more detail and can go into focus discussions with
everybody outside of this if necessary. I really appreciate it. Thank you very
much for that.
Thank You.
I just have a clarifying question about information on slide 18 and then on 21.
18 says extreme difficulty in retaining operators and
then currently 10 out of 47 operator positions are vacant.
Peninsula, it says five out of 46 operators are vacant,
which is the correct figure.
Chair Bjorkman, I'd have to either consult with
I'll say Barrell, or we can actually probably
get back with you on the data set there.
There may have been a little bit of error there,
do you know offhand, Bella?
So there might be a slide miss error in that one, so.
But we can get back with you on the correct numbers very well, okay
We're gonna stick around for a few minutes in here about the equipment fleet or do you want to call it a day?
Thank you
But you plan go ahead. Yeah, thank you
If we could just pick up just for few more minutes slide 37
Thank You very much
Ms. Rutrell if you could just tell us a little bit about the equipment fleet we would be very appreciative
Absolutely for the record Christie's control through the care the state equipment we really are
have had a slight improvement on our vacancies.
Again, we're still constantly recruiting,
trying to get people to come in,
trying be a little, you know, having to be flexible
with schedules and whatnot.
We do have a lot of mechanics traveling to other areas
to help keep the equipment up and running.
Sometimes, just stick our challenge for us.
We are continuing to expand our fleet and try different technologies.
Some of our most recent things that we are doing is adding snow blowers to ag tractors,
trying to be able to utilize that equipment all year round instead of just knowing in
So that is something that we have implemented in a couple of locations.
Anchorage has what I believe is an e-mountments in the back to Valley.
So we are just trying to help get M&M some more tools to use your round with the operators that they have.
We also have 18 new plant trucks that were put in service over the last 12 months.
Hopefully, being able to retire some of those older, more problematic units.
We also have 30 more contracts.
They are actually just being delivered to the up sitter as we speak, and we will start
to see those arrive in Alaska probably early to mid-April and then through the end of the
year to get more contract in service statewide, actually.
Kind of where we're at right now. I'd be happy to answer any questions
Thank you very much miss food trail in the budget last year
There was an attempt to save some money by the legislature
By extending the life of the equipment fleet
Those items were
We're vetoed and now are some discussion about essentially re-appropriations that occurred
At the Senate finance table
Those reappropriation by the governor and essentially agencies
This I would assume is one of them
could you tell us a little bit about the equipment that you did purchase and rationale as to
What equipment was purchased based on on need and why why it was that life of
equipment cannot be extended?
Sure, Christy, if you travel further, through the chair, the extending the life
of equipment gets harder and harder for us to do. We typically try and
get the permit replaced before it becomes such a maintenance nightmare, if you will.
We definitely run into issues with being able to get parked. We have manufacturers that, you know,
go out of business. People that are building a component go at a business, the longer we keep
The cost to keep it up and running is definitely a challenge.
So while we can do it, the off side to that is that then the maintenance costs tend to
start to go up.
So trying to identify that happy point, if you will, becomes a
challenge when we look at replacing stuff, we are definitely
each piece of the equipment line by line. How many hours, how much maintenance cost,
how many downtime. Does it meet the need of this apartment? So it's quite a process that we
that, we go through. And right now for the past three years, I can say,
we're really focused on replacing the things that are kind of, the worst of their worst.
Thank you very much for that response, I greatly appreciate it.
When there is a loss of a piece of equipment due to an accident or
kind of unforeseen mechanical failure, what type of insurance protections exist for
the state, if there's an incident where a vehicle gets totaled or what happens in
that instance, do we have insurance to cover that loss?
For the record, Kristi Futrell, for the care, we do not.
The state is self-insured.
So if there is an accident, any department, state department
that has a state vehicle, it is a direct cost
to the agency unless we can recover insurance funds
from a third party.
We are fairly successful in doing that
when there's a Third Party involved.
Unfortunately, that's not always the case.
If there is no third party,
it becomes the operating budget of the museum department
that takes care of that as a lot.
Okay.
I think there's a Michael Jackson song like that.
Just eat it.
Okay, any further questions?
I I'll think we'll leave that here for today
we'll come back and revisit. Maybe at a time we have a cool kiddo who won caring for the
Kenai contest with her project for brine replacement with the graphene particles,
not just for vaccines. So we will hear about graphene and potential replacement for Brine
As there is no further business to come before the Senate Transportation Committee today, we are adjourned at 3.08 PM.
Thank you.