Chelsea Ward Waller, capital improvement program coordinator in Project Management and Engineering (PM&E), and Melinda Kohlhas, director of PM&E, outlined the Public Works approach to identifying, scoring and advancing projects in the municipal Capital Improvement Program during a Feb. 7 Anchorage Assembly work session.

Ward Waller said the department uses an incremental funding approach to project development: early phases fund study and preliminary engineering and later phases fund design and construction when scope and cost estimates are more certain. “We use an incremental approach in funding,” Ward Waller said, explaining that phased funding helps clarify scope and build engineers’ estimates that feed the six-year CIP.

Melinda Kohlhas emphasized interdepartmental coordination with utilities and maintenance: “We do have a very lengthy, plan review distribution coordination process that we engage with AWW, gives them an opportunity early on in our project phase, especially the design study report phase, to let us know if they are aware of aging infrastructure that they would like to replace,” she said. Kohlhas added that timing can still be constrained by utility funding cycles and design lives.

Why it matters: how PM&E scores and sequences projects will affect which roads, drainage and safety projects appear in the 2026 CIB and anticipated bond packages; those decisions also determine how the municipality packages state and federal grant requests.

Key points from the presentation:

- Scoring criteria and process: PM&E presented a long-standing multi-criteria scoring list (similar to the parks matrix) that covers severity of need, timeline/shovel-readiness, land use, operations and maintenance impacts and other factors. Ward Waller said the department is reviewing the criteria and seeking ways to streamline scoring and use GIS or subject-matter experts to reduce meeting load.

- Needs and data sources: the department uses community council CIP surveys, maintenance reports, adopted plans, AMATS planning outputs and an internal forum that brings project managers, maintenance and right-of-way staff together to flag candidate projects.

- Road condition monitoring: Kohlhas described a pavement-condition program conducted every three years by a vendor that profiles pavement quality across paved municipal streets; the results are presented as broad condition bands (A–F) that feed prioritization.

- Funding and projects: PM&E listed typical program pots (Safe Routes to School, traffic calming, ADA compliance, watershed and pavement/drainage programs) and noted not all large corridor transformations fit municipal bond models and are coordinated with AMATS and the state DOT. Ward Waller and Kohlhas said the department is actively entering legislative requests and working with community councils to shape state requests.

- Federal grant: staff said the municipality was awarded a Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) federal grant for a single large project valued at $25,000,000. Ward Waller said the award was recorded in 2024 and the municipality has up to five years to complete work under that grant.

- Tools and transparency: Ward Waller showed Questica (municipal budget software) and the project center reporting dashboard as places Assembly members and the public can view project descriptions, funding and status; both tools are updated on the schedule PM&E follows. The department is preparing to launch the community council CIP survey imminently, after missing an earlier January target, and pledged technical assistance for councils that need help with the online form.

Assembly members pressed staff on several recurring issues: how long projects remain on the list, how CAPSIS (state legislative project submissions) interacts with municipal prioritization, whether the council survey software has been tested, and how to provide alternative public pathways when community councils are inactive or unrepresentative. Staff said they are working to better align municipal, legislative and AMATS processes, will provide technical assistance for community councils, and are discussing improved communication with legislative offices about CAPSIS requests.

Ward Waller also highlighted the 2025 construction slate and noted the Westing Ridge Snow Disposal Site construction had started the week of the meeting. For large federal grants such as SS4A, Ward Waller said construction will likely be staged over several years.

Next steps: PM&E plans to send the community council survey out imminently, continue refining scoring criteria and coordinate more closely with AMATS, state partners and Assembly members on how projects feed into municipal, state and federal funding requests.