State transportation officials have pulled nearly $20 million in federal funding meant to improve safety on some of Anchorage’s most deadly roads.
The move stunned state legislators and local leaders who say it makes little sense for a city that has seen a record number of pedestrian deaths.
“This is a crisis involving human lives,” said state Rep. Ted Eischeid, D-Anchorage, “and here we are kicking the can down the road.”
The decision has sparked a dispute over how Alaska prioritizes federal safety dollars, pitting state transportation officials who say funding shortages forced difficult choices against a contingent of legislators and Anchorage leaders who argue the funding changes disproportionately affect the city.
Eischeid, the co-chair of the House Transportation Committee, is one of 27 lawmakers – nearly half the Alaska Legislature – who signed a strongly worded letter to the state Department of Transportation last month, criticizing the agency for pulling roughly two-thirds of the funding for this year’s planned Anchorage-area projects. DOT officials say that money, which comes from a federal program to improve safety on state roads, will now go to other projects around Alaska.
Eischeid said he was shocked by the change of plans – it felt very sudden.
“I don't understand it,” he said. “I've not heard a good explanation. And in that context, I think it's wrong. I don't think it's good government, because people's lives are what we're talking about.”
According to DOT spokesperson Shannon McCarthy, for the first time in a long time, there’s not enough federal safety money to go around. McCarthy said DOT is prioritizing shovel-ready projects that can get done this year. Plus, she said, some of the Anchorage projects need to be studied more.
“Our best intentions are to try to get as many projects out on the street as quickly as possible, and to really do the research and data so that we can stand behind any project and we can say this was well thought out,” she said.
But Anchorage Assembly member Erin Baldwin Day represents a district where planned safety upgrades were pulled. She said DOT’s reasoning doesn’t hold water. Even if funding is short, she said, the projects DOT pulled are almost exclusively in Anchorage, with only one small project outside of the city. She said it feels like Anchorage is being singled out, with disproportionately low funding going to a place with disproportionately high pedestrian deaths – 30 over the past two years.
In total, the state is receiving $77 million in program funding from the federal government in 2026, but now only $9 million – less than 12% – is going to the Anchorage area. According to Baldwin Day, roughly 40% of pedestrian deaths happen in the municipality.
“Either this is a situation of active negligence, incompetence or outright hostility,” she said. “Those are the only three explanations for this level of asymmetry, and I can't come up with a fourth option.”
Many of the main roads in Anchorage are owned by the state – and they’re where most of the pedestrian deaths are happening. That means the city and the state are required to work together to improve safety, Baldwin Day said.
The $18.7 million would have paid for more than half a dozen traffic safety projects in Anchorage, including eliminating a lane on both Ingra and Gambell streets in Fairview to slow traffic. Also on the list: Northern Lights Boulevard, which would have seen wider sidewalks, fewer lanes and a lower speed limit; and A Street, with a lane reduction and more traffic lights.
DOT data shows that in the past five years in those combined areas, the proposed changes could have helped prevent nearly 50 deaths or serious injuries.
Baldwin Day said that’s why it’s a misuse of federal safety funding to prioritize projects that can be completed this year. “If we allocate funds to smaller projects that are, quote, shovel ready and might save one life every four years, we are, by definition, defunding projects that would save multiple lives every year,” she said.
Now, the money is going to newer projects like traffic signals in Fairbanks that can communicate with computerized cars, upgrades to pedestrian walk signals around Southeast and new guardrail ends on the Parks Highway between Fairbanks and Denali.
But there is a silver lining, Baldwin Day said. She’s heartened to see the collaboration between Alaska legislators and city officials, all pushing back against DOT’s decision.
McCarthy said DOT was surprised by some of the pushback. And she said the department would like to have more constructive dialogue. “We'd like to have a relationship in which the worst is not assumed,” she said. “And we're working together to make Anchorage roads safer for everyone.”
Anchorage Mayor Suzanne LaFrance has met with the DOT commissioner, who she said recognizes the significant needs of the municipality. LaFrance has said she’s also talking to the governor.
