President Biden and the bipartisan group, on Wednesday, announced agreement on the details of what’s being labeled as a ‘once-in-a-generation’ investment in American infrastructure, which will be taken up for consideration. In total, the deal includes $550 billion in new federal investment in America’s infrastructure, according to the White House.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski announced Alaska’s priorities in a press conference Thursday:
“We had a strong focus on roads and bridges. As we think about the highway projects in Alaska, whether its construction, rebuilding or maintaining, we know that we have significant needs. Our efforts to make sure that Alaska was receiving parity is going to play out in this bill. Support for airports. Our air traffic control infrastructure. We want to make sure that when we are talking about transportation infrastructure it is not only on the water, on the ground, but also in the air. I have been working with colleagues to make sure that there is a path forward for essential ferry service in rural communities that will help us with the Alaska Marine Highway System. With this administration, there is a great deal of focus on moving to electric vehicles. Not only to EVs but other alternative fuel vehicles that will help reduce emissions.”
Murkowski also said that the focus for Alaska would be broadband in unserved and underserved parts of the state, critical minerals projects, remote and subsistence harbor construction, wildfire management and tribal climate resiliency.
When asked about specific projects for the Kenai Peninsula and Southcentral Alaska, Murkowski said:
“$4.3 billion over five years in highway funding for Alaska to construct, rebuild, maintain our highways. We’ve got over 570 miles of highway in poor condition. We know what that means to commute times. I have driven that road between Anchorage and the Kenai Peninsula so many times and we all know what that means when we are in the midst of summer traffic with RVs coming back and forth and its dipnet season. We know the safety issues that we have on many parts of the highway. There’s $11 billion for highway and pedestrian safety programs.”
Murkowski also stressed the significance to water infrastructure funding in announcing that there will be over $180 million for water and wastewater projects in Alaska and said the focus on Alaska’s broadband infrastructure would be to unserved areas of Alaska with regard to speeds and affordability. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal aims to grow the economy, enhance the country’s competitiveness, create additional jobs, and make the economy more sustainable.
For more on the historic bipartisan infrastructure deal, click here.