Alaska DOT releases annual report

The Alaska DOT has released their annual report for 2010.  The 32 page document is available on line for any resident to read at their leisure.

The report highlights all facets of Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities across the state including driving accidents, construction, airport facilities, and population growth projections.

The department assets include 253 airports, 11 ferries and 33 ports, 788 bridges with 14,800 miles of highway and 660 public facilities.

According to the report 6% of the statewide workforce is employed directly in transportation.   Transportation–related jobs account for over 10-thousand jobs statewide.

Staggering statistics are lined out in parts of the report.  The Mat su Borough is expected to grow 70% by the year 2030.  DOT officials expect the population of 65 year olds and older to increase dramatically over the next decade. All of those statistics figure in to the DOT’s plan for future roads in the state.

Although accidents this year on the Seward Highway have been highlighted in the media, the DOT report looking at the last decade shows Alaska’s motor vehicle traffic fatality count overall steadily declined from over 100 in 2007, to 64 in 2009.  The number of unbelted traffic fatalities went from 31 in 2007, down to 12 in 2009.  Between the fall of 2000 and fall of 2010 fatal and major injury crashes on the designated safety-corridor highways declined by 48%.

Those statistics and more can be found in the yearly report. It is now posted on the DOT website at  dot.state.ak.us