FAIRBANKS - Under a scaled back version of a national transportation bill favored by Rep. Don Young, the state would receive about $2.16 billion in highway funds over the next six years, an average of $360 million a year.
That's well above the $320 million it received last year.
The House bill would provide $275 billion for projects nationwide over the next six years. That's about $100 billion less than Young had been seeking. It's also substantially less than the $318 billion offered by the Senate bill.
The bill now goes to the House for a floor vote. Then it must be merged with a Senate version. Young, R-Alaska, is head of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
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The largest earmark in the bill would provide $15 million for a road linking the Kuskokwim River to the proposed Donlin Creek Mine in Southwest Alaska.
The $15 million for the Donlin Creek mine road would be on top of $10 million already included in a separate annual federal spending bill for the current fiscal year. Alaskans also approved a $4 million general obligation bond issue to help the road last year and the Legislature spent about $500,000 on environmental work in 1999.
If the $15 million from Young's bill comes through, the $29.5 million in total government aid should be enough to make the 20-mile road a reality, said Bob Charles, vice president of government and corporate relations for Calista Corp. The southwest Alaska regional Native corporation owns the mineral rights at the Donlin Creek mine site.
The road would be used to haul supplies and building material to the mine from a barge dock on the river, he said.
The Donlin Creek deposit is the largest undeveloped gold concentration in North America, according to the mine's developers. Placer Dome of Vancouver, B.C., operates the site and owns about 30 percent of the venture. The other 70 percent is owned by NovaGold, a smaller firm also from Vancouver.
The bill also contains $3 million for planning and design of a bridge across Knik Arm just north of Anchorage. Young puts the bridge near the top of his Alaska project priorities, though it would cost multimillions and he said the state must help fund it.
The bill contains money for numerous Alaska projects including Alaska ferry terminals at Unalaska, Kodiak and Coffman Cove. It also has money to eliminate highway-rail crossings and improve highway safety and transit times along the Alaska Railroad. And it would provide money for a transit center in Juneau.
Other projects include a bridge to Gravina Island, a road extension from the Seward Highway to the railroad and airport, and construction of the False Pass Road from the small boat harbor dock to the airport and town.
Young has asked the committee to pass the scaled-back bill because the White House, House leadership and the House tax-writing committee chairman all oppose higher spending. Young's proposal would have required an increase of about 5 cents in the 18-cent-per-gallon federal gasoline tax, plus annual increases to adjust for inflation.
