The U.S. Department of Transportation is awarding the State DOT a $1.1 million grant for the Avalanche Mitigation Alert Detection project.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - The U.S. Department of Transportation is awarding the State DOT a $1.1 million grant for the Avalanche Mitigation Alert Detection project. Stan Caldwell , USDOT Smart Grants director, said the Seward Highway is the busiest highway in Alaska, but is also prone to avalanches, and while in Alaska he’s seen the major impact avalanches can have on affecting the highway, railroad and powerlines.
“Avalanches are a major problem for the Seward Highway, a major safety problem for the highway and a problem for road closures,” Caldwell said. “We were on the Seward Highway yesterday, down past Girdwood, to see dozens of avalanche paths and the impacts of these.” Caldwell said the state’s Avalanche Mitigation Alert Detection project incorporates technologies that allow for controlled releases of unstable snow and forecasting technology to mitigate significant avalanche risks along the Seward Highway corridor. “This is cutting-edge technology, some that’s not being done anywhere else, and the folks here at Alaska Department of Transportation are pioneering this technology and the Smart Grant is funding this so that we can take lessons learned here and share them with the lower 48,” he said. “The eyes of the world are on Alaska to see the technology in action.” Part of this technology includes a remote avalanche control system, consisting of a 10-foot tube on a trailer that can be deployed remotely to areas where snowpack is dangerously high, Caldwell said. This will function as a way to set them off in a safer way with less traffic closures. The Smart Grants program is looking for innovators pioneering new technology that can eventually be shared with others, which Caldwell said the Alaska DOT’s avalanche mitigation efforts are an example of. “ are the leaders in the United States in deploying avalanche technology with their avalanche mitigation team,” he said. “They’re using technology that some of it, the first time in the world being deployed here, so we need to take the lessons learned and share them with the lower 48.”An Anchorage woman froze to death. A lawsuit claims a 911 dispatcher failed to get her urgent help.Koahnic Broadcast Corporation launches initiative to strengthen Indigenous public media ‘Every fiber of me wishes I could change it all’: Veteran musher posts tribute to dog who died during Iditarod
Alaska DOT Alaska Smart Grant Stan Caldwell USDOT Smart Grants Seward Highway Seward Highway Avalanches AMAD Alaska
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