I recently moved to Juneau from Port Arthur, Texas.
In August, my area received more than 50 inches of rain over the course of four days during Hurricane Harvey. This storm put our infrastructure to test. Despite the fact that the largest oil refinery in North America is located in Port Arthur, the pump stations serving my community of 35,000 ran out of diesel fuel due to a lack of ground transportation. Consequently, 80 percent of the city was flooded, with some homes inundated with more than 10 feet of water. In other areas, the storm isolated communities due to bridge failures and the third largest waterway in the United States was closed for nearly two weeks. To me this highlighted the importance of resiliency in infrastructure.
In Alaska, our ports, harbors, airports and sometimes single bridges are what connect us to the outside world. They allow us to import food and fuel as well as export our own goods. Sadly, these lifelines have been underfunded for the last number of years, delaying maintenance and new construction. Several days ago, a magnitude 7.9 earthquake hit off the coast of Kodiak. Fortunately, no one was injured and very little (if any) significant infrastructure was damaged. However, this did not have to be the case. In Alaska, natural disasters like these can happen anywhere without notice and our communities need to be prepared for their eventuality.
Despite its difficulty, this legislative session must result in a funding increase for the state’s infrastructure. Not only is transportation funding a strong economic driver, it’s what ties the state together and provides for our bare necessities.
For two weeks in a row I have gone to the grocery store and been greeted by a sign saying, “Due to a break down with the ferry system, our produce will not arrive until Wednesday. We apologize for the inconvenience.” While this is by no means a new occurrence, I think it makes my point clear. Much of Alaska’s transportation network is not redundant and we cannot afford to risk our state’s future on the hope that oil prices will soon rise.
• Andrew Wells is a structural engineer in Juneau. His background includes bridge and port design, construction and inspection.
