Alaska Airport Projects: 'transitioning into a maintenance standpoint'.

• Author: Strieker, Julie
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: Building Alaska

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Alaska is in a class by itself when it comes to aviation.

More than 82 percent of the communities in the vast state aren't connected to the road system, so airplanes are a vital link. According to the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (ADOT&PF), there are more than four hundred public airports in Alaska and hundreds of other private strips and floatplane bases. The Alaska Aviation System is the largest in North America.

Alaska residents, on average, fly more than eight times as often as people in other states.

Aviation Industry

The ADOT&PF is involved in the day-today operations and maintenance of the facilities, in addition to leases, permits, and fee management at rural airports. The department is divided into three regions: Southcoast, which is Southeast Alaska and the Aleutians; Central, which includes Anchorage; and Northern, which encompasses most of the rest of the state. Funding comes from both federal and state sources.

The aviation industry is also an economic lifeline for the state. It generates $3.5 billion and more than forty-seven thousand Alaska jobs annually, about 10 percent of jobs in the state. But what really sets the state apart is that one entity, the state of Alaska, is responsible for the upkeep of most of these facilities. In the Lower 48, a city or county may be responsible for one or two facilities. ADOT&PF oversees 249, of which 247 are located in rural Alaska, many of them with gravel surfaces because of underlying permafrost.

Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport is the fifth-largest airport in the world in terms of cargo throughput. It alone is responsible for one in ten jobs in Anchorage.

In addition, the state is home to the largest seaplane base in the world, Lake Hood, which is also owned and operated by the state of Alaska. The department is working on a draft master plan to update the seaplane base, with the first public meetings planned for the spring.

In addition, the US Army Corps of Engineers is studying the bluffs at Point Woronzof, just off the end of the Anchorage runways, which are in danger of erosion. In January, they proposed placing large rocks at the base of the bluff to combat erosion at a cost of $48 million.

Facilities Upkeep

The upkeep for Alaska's aviation facilities costs millions of dollars every year, not including upgrades to stay compliant with Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) guidelines. After a slate of big construction...