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Providing coverage of Alaska and northern Canada's oil and gas industry
April 2018

Vol. 23, No.16 Week of April 22, 2018

Work proceeds on NS roads project

State ASTAR program seeks to link remote Arctic communities while also providing transportation routes for oil industry use

Alan Bailey

Petroleum News

The state is moving ahead with Arctic Strategic Transportation and Resources, or ASTAR, a program aimed at the development of a road infrastructure connecting communities across the whole of Alaska’s North Slope, Andy Mack, commissioner of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, told the House Resources Committee on April 11. The idea is to increase cultural connectivity, reduce the cost of living in the communities, enable the more efficient development of natural resources, increase job opportunities in the region, and decrease the cost of remediating some legacy wells in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, Mack said.

Work underway

At this stage, the state has contracted with ASRC Energy Services Inc. and Resource Data Inc. to provide project management support; to conduct data and geographic information analysis; to carry out stakeholder outreach; and to assess the project economics.

Anticipated deliverables include a strategic plan for future infrastructure development, a cumulative benefits analysis tool and an identification of any information gaps. The cumulative benefits tool would enable a determination of the benefits of an infrastructure development, as distinct from the cumulative impacts that are typically ferreted out in an environmental assessment, Mack explained. The strategic plan would identify specific infrastructure projects.

An immediate activity, which will likely take a couple of summers to complete, is an evaluation of potential gravel sources for roads.

A 2017 state appropriation of $7.3 million funds the program: The budget for the current fiscal year amounts to some $2.5 million; about $2.9 million would be spent in fiscal year 2019; and $1.7 million in fiscal year 2020. The assessment of project economics will research potential sources of funding for actual infrastructure construction. Given the current status of state finances, all funding options are on the table, Mack said. The North Slope Borough has bonding ability and some federal funding through the Department of Transportation is a possibility, he said.

Originated in 2016

Mack said that the project originated in 2016, when Gov. Bill Walker met with regional leaders on the North Slope. A key issue that emerged from the discussions was the declining reliability of winter ice, a phenomenon that impacts the ability of people to travel between communities and the ability of industry to conduct winter off-road projects - winter ice-road seasons have been becoming shorter.

And so the state undertook to initiate a program, working with the communities, to determine what can be done to enhance the community connectivity, Mack said.

“It was agreed that we would come to some sort of understanding and focus, in partnership with those communities, on ensuring that year-round roads would be available in the future, for future generations,” Mack said.

In particular, the young people in the communities recognize the future importance of a transportation infrastructure that would enable transits between communities and the import of goods and materials at reasonable cost, he said.

When it comes to potential industry use of a road system, the state is currently seeing tremendous development opportunities in the eastern National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, and longer-term opportunities in the 1002 area of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Mack said.

Funding led to partnership

The consequence of the state picking up the infrastructure program was a request last year to the Legislature for some funding, resulting in $7.3 million for the program. Subsequently DNR formed a new partnership agreement with the North Slope Borough for actions to be carried out in conjunction with several state agencies. Several DNR divisions are involved, as are the Department of Health and Social Services; the Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development; and the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities.

And a major focus of the effort is the development of a road from the Colville Delta in the central North Slope west to Utqiagvik.

“Our purpose is to build year-round roads with the communities, so that they can enjoy those same benefits that most of us enjoy in our communities where we live,” Mack said.

There has not been a state project to build major infrastructure for many years, Mack said. The ASTAR program, which is not yet a formal project, involves working with the communities in a region with the state’s largest resource play. In doing this the state is anxious to provide a consistent vision, both from the state and from the communities, for what is required, to communicate with the federal agencies that manage huge land areas in NPR-A and ANWR, he said.

In fact, ASTAR involves planning on a regional basis, crossing different government jurisdictions, and not on the basis of land ownership patterns, Mack said.

Proof of concept snow road

Following the approval last year of ASTAR funding, DNR worked with the North Slope Borough on a proof-of-concept project for the value of road construction. This project has involved the construction this year of a packed snow winter road,between Utqiagvik and the gravel road system in the central North Slope, to assess how a year-round road might work. This has been used by caravans of Utqiagvik residents, for bringing vehicles in and out, and for traveling to destinations south of Deadhorse. DNR is also trying to have the mail service use the trail, as an alternative to flying things into Utqiagvik, Mack said.

An alternative perspective

Lois Epstein, Arctic program director for the Wilderness Society, presented testimony to the committee, arguing that, with the state not having the tens of millions of dollars that it would require to build roads on the North Slope, the infrastructure program will end up being cancelled. In addition, questions need to be raised over why money should be spent on these particular projects, versus projects elsewhere, Epstein said. There is a history in the state of spending money on studies into infrastructure construction, only to have people’s hopes dashed when they discover that the state does not have the financial wherewithal to fund the work, she said.

“Given the state’s financial situation, it’s a mystery to me why the Legislature in 2017 approved an appropriation for ASTAR, which starts this new mega-project, in the very same capital budget that shut down the unaffordable Knik Arm bridge and Juneau access mega-projects,” Epstein said. “I fear that residents of the North Slope are being misled into thinking that ASTAR will actually construct gravel roads, rather than just spend money to plan them.”






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