AK FLMA LRTP update

Welcome to the world of acronyms! On top of the usual transportation letters, we have the agency shortcuts, meaning that nearly any sentence related to my project could be written in at least 50% capital letters. So, AK FLMA LRTP is the Alaska Federal Land Management Agencies Long Range Transportation Plan, required by SAFETEA-LU (Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act, a Legacy for Users- heh), not to be confused with the AK NPS LRTP (Alaska National Park Service Long Range Transportation Plan).

Anyway, the FLMA LRTP effort has been underway for over a year. The plan will provide the agencies and the state the opportunity to work together to set statewide transportation priorities and leverage funds to meet transportation needs on Alaska's federal lands.

The interagency team has conducted initial data collection and has drafted a mission, goals, objectives and strategies for the plan. Currently, the FLMA LRTP is in a second data collection phase focused on informing these goals objectives and strategies.

The FLMA LRTP will actually consist of an umbrella plan which addresses the common objectives of the agencies, and "dropdown" agency-specific plans which address the individual transportation needs of each agency. By using this model, the agencies will be able to build on their common transportation goals while remaining mindful of their sister-agencies respective missions and transportation needs. This model also allows a maximum of resources, such as a shared public participation process and data collection and analysis.

Immediate benefits of the FLMA LRTP were obvious to me when I attended the last team meeting at BLM headquarters in Fairbanks in August. This effort is the first time that representatives from each agency, FHWA, and the state have sat around the same table to address transportation to and through Alaska's Federal lands. During breaks and after the meeting, people broke off to discuss obvious potential areas of collaboration and joint funding opportunities that only now have become apparent. The collaboration and information sharing that has taken place in this past year has had immediate payoffs, and the importance of continuing open lines of communication is a common topic of discussion.