Federal funding for repairing Haines’ Porcupine Road has been withdrawn. Some of the work has already been done, and it is unclear whether the federal government will reimburse the Haines Borough.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has backed out of its commitment to pay for work on the Porcupine Road. The Haines Borough applied for the project after the 2020 flood event that damaged many roads in town. The work was to be divided in three distinct phases. The first phase was recently completed, at a cost of around $1.5M. Haines borough manager Annette Kreitzer says the federal agency is currently looking into the work that has been performed.
Kreitzer: “So as a result of that investigation, they have de-obligated the funds for the project.”
Kreitzer says it is unclear what the consequences of this will be. Constantine Metals is the principal user of the road, and she says they had been authorized by the Borough to work on a section of the road.
Kreitzer: “I think there is a little bit of confusion about what is happening out there, because we allowed Constantine to do some work to fix the road because it was in danger of washing out.”
FEMA representatives said the agency approved around $8M for road repairs in town. The three phases of the Porcupine Road work are assessed at around $10M, according to Ed Coffland, who is the director of public works. Coffland says FEMA works slowly, and he expects the funds will come through eventually.
Erin Ward is a spokesperson for FEMA. She says the agency is taking a step back to reconsider whether the project fits within the agency’s guidelines.
Ward: “My understanding is that we need to work on rescoping the project at large, so before we want to assign additional funding to the project itself, we need to re-look at what the project is to make sure that the public assistance funding that they are requesting is actually eligible.
Ward says that during a recent site visit, FEMA officials observed that work was completed that was beyond the approved and funded scope of work. She says the agency has decided to consider the project as a single phase, and that the entire project will have to go through the federal environmental permitting process.
