The Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities (DOT&PF) is a department within the

government of Alaska The government of Alaska ( Iñupiaq: ''Alaskam Kavamanaa'') in common with state and federal governments of the United States, has three branches of government: the executive, consisting of the Governor of Alaska and the state agencies; the sta ...

. Its headquarters are in

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S. ...

's capital city,

Juneau The City and Borough of Juneau, more commonly known simply as Juneau ( ; tli, Dzánti K'ihéeni ), is the capital city of the state of Alaska. Located in the Gastineau Channel and the Alaskan panhandle, it is a unified municipality and the s ...

. The mission of Alaska DOT&PF is to "''Keep Alaska Moving through service and infrastructure.''" The Alaska Department of Transportation was established on July 1, 1977, by Alaska Highway Commissioner Walter Parker during the administration of

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Jay Hammond Jay Sterner Hammond (July 21, 1922 – August 2, 2005) was an American politician of the Republican Party, who served as the fourth governor of Alaska from 1974 to 1982. Hammond was born in Troy, New York and served as a Marine Corps fighter pil ...

. The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities merged the former departments of Highways and Public Works. Alaska DOT&PF designs, constructs, operates and maintains the state's transportation infrastructure systems, buildings, and other facilities used by Alaskans and visitors. These include more than 5,600 miles of paved and gravel highways; more than 300 aviation facilities, including 235 rural airports and 2 international airports (

Fairbanks International Airport Fairbanks International Airport is a state-owned public-use airport located three miles (5 km) southwest of the central business district of Fairbanks, a city in the Fairbanks North Star Borough of the United States state of Alaska. Fairban ...

and

Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport is a major airport in the U.S. state of Alaska, located southwest of downtown Anchorage. The airport is named for Ted Stevens, a U.S. senator from Alaska in office from 1968 to 2009. It is include ...

); 839 public facilities; 21 harbors; and a ferry system covering 3,500 marine miles serving 33 coastal communities.

Background

The Board of Road Commissioners for Alaska, more commonly known as the

Alaska Road Commission The Board of Road Commissioners for Alaska, more commonly known as the Alaska Road Commission or ARC, was created in 1905 as a board of the U.S. War Department. It was responsible for the construction and improvement of many important Alaska h ...

or ARC, was created in 1905 as a board of the U.S. War Department. It was responsible for the construction and improvement of many important Alaska highways, such as the

Richardson Highway The Richardson Highway is a highway in the U.S. state of Alaska, running 368 miles (562 km) and connecting Valdez to Fairbanks. It is marked as Alaska Route 4 from Valdez to Delta Junction and as Alaska Route 2 from there to Fairbanks. I ...

, Steese Highway, Elliot Highway and

Edgerton Highway The Edgerton Highway is a minor highway in the U.S. state of Alaska that extends from the Richardson Highway near Copper Center to the town of Chitina. The McCarthy Road, within the Wrangell-Saint Elias National Park and Preserve, is a exten ...

, among others.

Wilds P. Richardson Wilds Preston Richardson (20 March 1861 in Hunt County, Texas – 20 May 1929) was an officer of the United States Army notable for being an explorer and geographer of Alaska in the early decades of the 20th century. During World War I, he was pro ...

was the first president of the ARC, from 1905 to 1917. The commission was transferred to the Department of the Interior in 1932, and was absorbed by the Bureau of Public Roads, a division of the

Commerce Department The United States Department of Commerce is an executive department of the U.S. federal government concerned with creating the conditions for economic growth and opportunity. Among its tasks are gathering economic and demographic data for busin ...

in 1956. Today, responsibility for road development and maintenance in Alaska lies with the Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities.

Organizational structure

The Alaska DOT&PF is administratively divided into three regions, Northern, Central, and Southcoast. The Northern Region, headquartered in Fairbanks, is the largest, most geographically diverse, and maintains more centerline miles of highway, including the Alaska Highway,

, Taylor Highway,

Denali Highway Denali Highway (Alaska Route 8) is a lightly traveled, mostly gravel highway in the U.S. state of Alaska. It leads from Paxson on the Richardson Highway to Cantwell on the Parks Highway. Opened in 1957, it was the first road access to Denali Na ...

, and

Dalton Highway The James W. Dalton Highway, usually referred to as the Dalton Highway (and signed as Alaska Route 11), is a road in Alaska. It begins at the Elliott Highway, north of Fairbanks, and ends at Deadhorse (an unincorporated community within the ...

and portions of the

Parks Highway The George Parks Highway (numbered Interstate A-4 and signed Alaska Route 3), usually called simply the Parks Highway, runs 323 miles (520 km) from the Glenn Highway 35 miles (56 km) north of Anchorage to Fairbanks in the Alaska In ...

and the Glenn Highway. The Central Region, headquartered in Anchorage, includes the state's most urban areas, as well as some of the most remote villages on the Kuskokwim Delta, the Alaska Peninsula, and the

Aleutian Chain The Aleutian Islands (; ; ale, Unangam Tanangin,”Land of the Aleuts", possibly from Chukchi ''aliat'', "island"), also called the Aleut Islands or Aleutic Islands and known before 1867 as the Catherine Archipelago, are a chain of 14 large vo ...

. Central Region maintains the

Seward Highway The Seward Highway is a highway in the U.S. state of Alaska that extends from Seward to Anchorage. It was completed in 1951 and runs through the scenic Kenai Peninsula, Chugach National Forest, Turnagain Arm, and Kenai Mountains. The Seward H ...

and the Sterling Highway, as well as parts of the

and Glenn Highway. The Southcoast Region, headquartered in

, serves the coastal communities of Alaska encompassing a population of 98,000. Currently, only three Southcoast communities are connected to the continental highway system –

Skagway The Municipality and Borough of Skagway is a first-class borough in Alaska on the Alaska Panhandle. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,240, up from 968 in 2010. The population doubles in the summer tourist season in order to deal with ...

, Haines, and Hyder. The

Alaska Marine Highway The Alaska Marine Highway (AMH) or the Alaska Marine Highway System (AMHS) is a ferry service operated by the U.S. state of Alaska. It has its headquarters in Ketchikan, Alaska. The Alaska Marine Highway System operates along the south-central ...

System is headquartered in

Ketchikan, Alaska Ketchikan ( ; tli, Kichx̱áan) is a city in and the borough seat of the Ketchikan Gateway Borough of Alaska. It is the state's southeasternmost major settlement. Downtown Ketchikan is a National Historic District. With a population at the 20 ...

. From there, AMHS management directs the operation and maintenance of our fleet of nine vessels, ranging in size from the 181 ft. MV ''Lituya'' to the 418 ft. MV ''Columbia''.

References

External links

Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities

Transportation Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land (rail and road), water, cable, pipeline, ...

State departments of transportation of the United States