Kuskokwim Ice Road: New funding necessary for seasonal highway: Region is in need of economic development, affordable energy, affordable housing, and cheaper transportation.

• Author: Strieker, Julie
• Position: Transportation SPECIAL SECTION

As the sky turns pink with the approaching dawn on the shortest day of the year, a handful of people from villages along the Kuskokwim River head out onto a jumble of ice to start marking what will become a 250-mile-long frozen road linking villages from Nunapitchuk south of Bethel to Napaimute to the north. The temperature is well below zero and the sun will barely rise above the horizon before it sets in mid-afternoon.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Arrive Alive

The river is the only highway linking about 15,000 people in the middle and lower Kuskokwim River, says Mike Leary, director of development and operations for the Native Village of Napaimute. It is a region in need of economic development, affordable energy, affordable housing, and cheaper transportation.

The ice road, even if it only exists for four or five months, drives down costs and offers a conduit for economic growth, Leary says. But the funding for the road is inadequate and unreliable. Workers from local tribal governments and search and rescue organizations build and maintain it. Many are volunteers.

"These are our highways--our only highways--an they need to be treated as such with stable funding for annual establishment and maintenance," Leary says.

In 2016, Leary received a $116,000 safety grant from the Federal Highways Administration and is compiling a report on the ice road called "Arrive Alive--a Tribal Transportation Safety Project." The road itself costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to build and maintain--there's no defined amount, Leary says. Money comes from a variety of federal and tribal sources. Next year, the safety grant will be gone.

"I made a list of everybody that I see out thee on the ice road," Leary says. "Just about every public and private entity in the region uses that ice road. It saves them thousands and thousands of dollars on their operating budget."

Many people use it, but few contribute to the costs related to the road's upkeep.

"The ice road is such a huge social and economic benefit for the region, but there's just a handful of people out there pulling the load," Leary says.

The Calista Connection

The middle and lower Kuskokwim River is part of the region overseen by Calista Corporation, one of the thirteen regional corporations established under the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act to benefit Alaska Natives. Calista includes fifty-six villages in southwest Alaska and has about 17,300 shareholder, primarily of Yup'ik descent. The...