Dorothy B. Larson continues to run this program with technical assistance provided through a contract agreement with the Bristol Engineering Services Corporation. We have negotiated and were awarded two contracts with the Bureau of Indian Affairs for our tribal share of the national pot of Indian Reservation Roads dollars through FY2015 of about $250,000.00 per year for a total accumulation of a little over $1,679,000.00. We will utilize these funds for planning and undertaking physical work on road projects in conjunction with the City of Dillingham as identified in the tribe's Long Range Transportation Plan.
We completed our first priority road project, Lil' Larry Road, and completed most survey, geotechnical, and design work and a 95% design on the Nerka Subdivision Road Upgrade. Civil construction work on this project will begin as soon as we can obtain the required funding of around $7.5 million dollars.
On an annual basis we continue to submit road inventory into the system. Before 2013 when the federal program changed from SAFETEA-LU to MAP-21 , adding inventory increased our tribal shares and possibly allowed us to access a larger piece of the funding pool at the federal level, but this has changed under the new program guidelines. We will continue to add road inventory in the hopes that the funding strategy will return to one based on road needs and federally accepted inventory of those needs. We have added several new routes to our Long Range Transportation Plan and, as discussed below, have moved Nerka and Neqleq roads as number 3 and 4 priorities in lieu of Squaw Creek Road.
Our Long Range Transportation Plan includes the following road project priorities:
1- Larry Road Upgrade
We have completed this project.
2-Kanakanak Road
We moved this road project up in priority to prompt and assist the State of Alaska to service this dangerous road immediately. Beginning repairs started in 2011 with additional work scheduled at least through 2015.
3-Nerka Subdivision Road
Thiss road has been added to our Long Range Transportation Plan and has been prioritized as number 2 in our August, 2008 monthly meeting, but moved down to accommodate moving the Kanakanak Road up. We are completing the required planning and design work now to be ready to begin construction work as soon as enough funds are obtained to complete the work.
4-Neqleq Road
This road has been added to our Long Range Transportation Plan and has been prioritized as number 3 in our August, 2008 monthly meeting, but moved down one to accommodate moving Kanakanak Road up.
5-Aleknagik Lake Road
We have added several roads to our inventory in subdivisions along the Aleknagik Lake Road. This inventory, once accepted into the Indian Reservation Roads inventory and did bring additional shares to the Curyung Tribal Council's roads program prior to FY2013.