The U.S. Department of Transportation has labeled many of the state’s seasonal barge routes as federal “marine highways,” an act that could increase the odds that regional ports receive federal funding.
The decision, announced Aug. 16, came as Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg finished a three-day visit to Alaska.
“When you enter into the marine highway program, you’re part of a national designation that can mean greater access to grant funding and policy attention,” Buttigieg said in Juneau.
The designation does not automatically include any additional federal funding.
Route “M-11,” as the federal government calls it, includes the barge routes that stretch from Unalaska northward through the Bering Sea, Bering Strait, Chukchi Sea, and Beaufort Sea. It also includes routes on the Yukon, Kuskokwim, and other major rivers.
Those waterways are vital transportation routes for much of rural Alaska during the spring and summer, but freeze over in the fall and winter.
The routes of the Alaska Marine Highway state ferry system have been part of “M-5,” a federal marine highway that stretches along the West Coast, since 2010.
