The Transportation Advisory Committee, or TAC, is charged with analyzing safety and infrastructure impacts of the ore-haul on 247 miles of the Alaska, Richardson, and Steese Highways. Randy Kinney with DOT contractor Kinney Engineering is researching infrastructure issues. He reviewed five aging bridges along the trucking route which need to be replaced, including the Steese Highway bridge over Chena Hot Springs Road in Fairbanks.
“This again is a bridge that will not handle the loaded B-train in the northbound direction,” Kinney said.
“B-trains” are the technical name for the 95 foot long, double-trailer ore haulers Kinross plans to make 60 roundtrips a day with. Existing by-passes can be used to get around the Chena Hot Springs road bridge and the Richardson Highway over the Moose Creek spillway, until they can be replaced. Others in line for replacement span the over the Robertson River, the Johnson River, and the Gerstle River. TAC members asked why the state is replacing five bridges to accommodate the ore haul. Chief Bridge Engineer Leslie Daugherty reminded the committee of the presentation on bridges she gave them in July, and that the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is providing the money.
“You know, IIJA came along and that's a large portion of funding was earmarked for bridges. So, we have money that we didn't have in the past, which makes looking at bridge replacements we haven't looked at in the past more attractive,” Daugherty said.
Kinross has contracted with Black Gold Transport to truck gold ore up the highways for the next five years. Daugherty said the Department of Transportation is on schedule to complete bridge replacements before the ore haul is finished.
“They’re going to be very redundant spans. It's very cookie cutter -- very similar, similar, similar, similar. It's an assembly line production, sort of, even though they're long. The best option is using deck-bulb T girders, which are prefabricated. It's like lego pieces or tinker toys. Hardest part is the foundation work,” she said.
The committee was scheduled to work on Potential Mitigation Strategies for safety along the highway corridor, and will finish that item next week.
Members present on Thursday suggested that representatives who haven’t been attending not be allowed to vote on recommendations.
The TAC is expected to produce a draft Corridor Action Plan before December.
Recordings of past meeting and slides from presentations are on the corridor website.
The next TAC worksession is next Thursday, October 19th, from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM.
