The Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities recently invested $7.2 million in federal funding to support essential restoration projects through the Shakwak corridor in Canada’s Yukon Territory; a key link in the Alaska Highway that serves as a continuous land route between the contiguous United States and Alaska.
[Above photo by the Government of Yukon]
That extra funding ensures that the Alaska Highway remains safe, reliable, and passable year-round, the agency said – preserving access for travelers, freight haulers, and emergency services, while sustaining Alaska’s vital overland connection to the Lower-48.
“The Shakwak Project is a long-standing and essential partnership between Alaska, the United States, and Canada,” said Alaska DOT&PF Commissioner Ryan Anderson in a statement.
“It reflects our shared commitment to keeping this international corridor open, well-maintained, and strategically capable – not just for Alaskans, but for the broader region and both nations,” he pointed out.
[Editor’s note: Such projects involve a wide variety of construction jobs, such as survey work. The South Carolina Department of Carolina recently profiled such surveyor work in its latest “Day in the Life” video.]
The agency said the additional funds were transferred through the Federal Highway Administration on May 1 to support improvements such as repairing road embankments, restoring surfaces and slopes, replacing failing culverts, reshaping ditches, and stockpiling aggregates.
Those projects are part of a broader, long-term commitment to restore and maintain the Shakwak corridor, which traverses some of the most remote and environmentally challenging terrain in North America, Alaska DOT&PF noted.
The agency added that it coordinated with FHWA and the Government of Yukon to share current construction advertisements with Alaska contractors and stakeholders for work on those projects, with bid notices published and distributed to Alaska’s Associated General Contractors network to ensure equitable access to procurement opportunities.
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