I suspect that Rep. Mike Prax was just passing along something that someone told him when he claimed to the Daily News-Miner that the safety difference between 95-foot trucks and 75-foot trucks is “statistically insignificant.”
Let’s be clear. Prax would support any Kinross trucking plan. This is a political reflex that he can’t control, as predictable as breathing.
Read MoreThe job Mike Porcaro is filling is the essence of waste, fraud and abuse. The job should have been eliminated long ago, following a 2015 audit that said there is so little work to do that full-time commissioners are not needed. The audit said the commission is ineffective and inefficient.
Read MoreThe 165,000-lb. Kinross mining trucks will carry a weight that is legal in Alaska and illegal in every other state.
The reason the proposed Kinross loads are legal in Alaska is that almost any load is legal in Alaska no matter how heavy, if there are enough axles on the truck to reduce the per-axle weight. That’s why the trucks have 16 axles.
Read MoreIf you are a crony of Gov. Mike Dunleavy, he’ll give you a state job without asking.
Dunleavy hired advertising man Mike Porcaro for a fulltime $136,000 fisheries job, one that Porcaro is not qualified to hold. The job is to run the Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission.
And Porcarco, 75, didn’t even ask for a state job, Nat Herz reports in the Northern Journal.
Read MoreThe turns at Peger Road, the Johansen Expressway and the Steese Highway bypass at Chena Hot Springs Road need to be checked. In addition, Kinross should demonstrate how its trucks will turn off Farmers Loop and onto the Steese Highway during the years when the Steese-Johansen intersection will be closed for construction.
The state plans to build a temporary bypass from the Johansen through the bog up to Farmers Loop, so the trucks will have to use the Farmers Loop intersection to get back on the Steese.
Read MoreThe latest Republican chain letter signed by Alaska Attorney General Tregarrick Taylor takes aim at a federal proposal to limit plastic pollution, claiming, among other things, that the EPA is blind to the immense benefits of plastic bags.
The generals say that “reusable shopping bags are rife with harmful bacteria” and are far worse for the environment than the plastic variety.
Read MoreThough the answers came in the form of noncommittal bureaucratese, state Department of Transportation and Public Facilities officials did not dispute they failed to follow federal law in selecting some projects for the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program and will have to backtrack in the months ahead.
They said this is all part of the process, it’s normal, mistakes happen, conversations are taking place, etc.
Read MoreIt’s no surprise that the Dunleavy PR squad did nothing to inform the public that the department in charge of getting state employees paid on time is not getting its work done and needs emergency help from a private contractor in Alabama. Forty-six percent of state payroll jobs are vacant. The private workers will get twice as much per hour as starting state workers.
Read MoreThe Department of Transportation and Public Facilities says comments on the draft plan can be made online at www.dot.alaska.gov/stip, via text message at 855-925-2801, or voice mail at 855-925-2801, enter Pin 2191, and leave a message.
Read MoreThe "top down” state list of highway projects from the Dunleavy administration violates federal law and regulation because the state failed to consult with long-established planning authorities in Fairbanks and Anchorage.
The proposed new bridges at the Chena Lakes Flood Control project and over Chena Hot Springs Road to help the Kinross ore hauling project did not undergo local review before State Transportation Commissioner Ryan Anderson ordered them placed in the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program late last year.
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