The U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg will visit Haines and Skagway next Wednesday. He will be accompanied by Senator Lisa Murkowski. The trip is meant to highlight federal investments in infrastructure. 

Pete Buttiegieg is taking a three day tour of Alaska. Following the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law two years ago, the federal government is pouring money into close to a thousand projects in the state. 

Haines Borough Manager Annette Kreitzer is preparing for the visit.

Kreitzer: ”We were notified a little over a week ago  that the secretary would be coming as part of his visit to Alaska.”

Buttigieg is touring some of the projects funded though the infrastructure bill. 

Kreitzer: “One of the things he will be looking at will be the Lutak dock, because of course that’s a 20 million dollar RAISE grant, and one of the very visible projects in Haines.”

Kreitzer says she expects Buttigieg to visit Haines in the morning and Skagway in the afternoon.

Local officials do not yet have a sense of the secretary’s schedule during the visit. Skagway Borough Manager Brad Ryan says he has been in touch with the staff of Senator Murkowski, who will travel with the secretary, but they have not yet worked out the details of the visit. 

Buttigieg is heading a department that is having a big impact on our local economies. The ferry system is part of DOT and has received close to 300 million dollars in federal funds as part of the infrastructure bill.

Work on the Haines Highway is expected to cost in excess of 100 million dollars, according to Haines DOT Foreman Matt Boron. The Haines airport is set to get a makeover in the coming years, at a cost of up to 20 million dollars. And work on the Lutak Dock will be funded by a DOT grant, also around 20 million dollars. 

Maintenance costs are another story and Boron sounds a note of grateful caution about these investments.

Boron: “Haines has been pretty blessed with new infrastructure, but then we have to look at funds to maintain it all. The day-to-day grind of maintaining what we have becomes an issue.” 

During his three day visit to Alaska, Buttigieg plans to travel to Anchorage, Kotzebue, Juneau, Haines and Skagway.