New transportation bill could reinstate funding for the Shakwak Project

The Yukon’s territorial government has long sought American funding to maintain miles of the Alaska Highway in Canada. And a bill making its way through Congress could make that happen.

It authorizes funding the Shakwak Project. That’s a 325-mile stretch between the Haines Junction border post and Beaver Creek in the Yukon.

A joint agreement to maintain the Alaska Highway goes back to the late 1970s when the U.S. agreed to reconstruct this Canadian section of highway if Canada maintained it. But the American reconstruction project stalled due to melting permafrost and unstable ground and was never finished.

Since 2009, there’s been no contribution from the U.S. side to maintain the highway. This winter Yukon officials in Whitehorse formally called on Washington to hold up its end of the bargain.

America’s Transportation Infrastructure Act of 2019 is on track to become the most expensive highway bill in history. It allocates $287 billion in funding to America’s road network⁠—some of which could be used to repave portions of the Alaska Highway in Canada.