At the urging of Sen. Peter Micciche, Gov. Mike Dunleavy reopened the Silvertip Maintenance Station for the remainder of the 2020/2021 snow season, as reported on December 18. The station has serviced the Seward and Sterling Highways until the Department of Transportation announced its closure in September 2019.
Since the station has reopened, the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities tells Senator Micciche via social media that their crews are working hard to try and adapt to the changing conditions of the roads as quickly as possible, citing the difficult snow and ice year on the east side of the peninsula with higher than average snowfalls with storms arriving in rapid succession.
Micciche tells his constituents that he’s been visiting with the Department of Transportation reminding them of the difficult conditions on the highway, but they are attempting to fill the Silvertip positions and update the equipment necessary for adequate service.
According to the Facebook post, the DOT maintenance and operation crews have been busy with pothole repairs on the Seward and Sterling Highways given the rapid changing weather conditions on top of plowing Turnagain Pass and assisting with avalanche control. They say that Central Region DOT has had to send extra personnel down from their Anchorage maintenance station, and will continue maintaining help till the highway has returned to acceptable driving conditions.
The Department of Transportation and Workforce Development, through the Facebook post said that they’ve been trying to fill positions necessary to keep up with maintenance of the highways. The immediate plan is to place two positions in Anchorage and two in Crown Point. Girdwood operators will now turn left out of Girdwood allowing them to focus more south, while the two positions in Anchorage will provide coverage of the Seward from Anchorage to Girdwood. The Crown Point operators will work north. Any positions that can’t be filled from the union will be posted on Workplace Alaska with the Silvertip Maintenance Station to be staffed with 5 people on a permanent basis (4 operators, 1 foreman).
The senator tells his constituents to keep him posted on the conditions as they develop at his email address senator.peter.micciche@akleg.gov. His goal this legislative session is to work on a permanent solution for adequate highway maintenance funding to avoid this type of situation in the future.
A link to the senator’s Facebook post can be seen here.