Funding for a project to shore up Porcupine Trail Road after flooding in 2020 is on hold after federal officials found work had been done outside the original project scope, but borough officials say the suspension is unlikely to affect the multi-million dollar project’s timeline.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, officials say the work on the road presents risks and complications to the borough getting reimbursed for the $1.4 million Phase 1 of the project, but said similar things happen in other projects.

“It makes it more difficult to meet environmental compliance requirements we have,” said Anna Daggett, a FEMA official. “We don’t see this every day, but it’s not uncommon.”

Borough manager Annette Kreitzer said in an email that emergency road-raising work had been done by Constantine Metals in late May and early June. Constantine is exploring a mining claim in the area and regularly drives trucks along the road.

But Kreitzer insisted Constantine’s work was legal. She said the borough had lawyers review the project, “before agreeing to the privately paid work, as has been done in the past.” She pointed to borough code, which allowed street and other construction by private corporations if it’s paid for by the corporation.

Ed Coffland, who directs construction for the borough, said the complaints were a result of “misunderstandings” with FEMA.

“I think there was some word going around that we had work going on outside of the limits of our right-of-way that we had deposited materials in a fish stream, which was absolutely not the case at all,” he said.

He said unless the suspension lasts for several months, it’s unlikely to have any major effect on the project timeline. Phase I of the project, which involved clearing ditches and resurfacing the road to restore it to pre-flood condition, had already been completed before the project funding was suspended. While FEMA’s role in funding the project has been suspended, Coffland said the borough is still planning for Phase II and III, which will involve permanent fixes to the road’s perennial flooding.

The borough had previously footed the bill for road repairs after flooding, Coffland said, but this year Constantine volunteered to pay for it.

State and FEMA officials visited the site on Aug. 31, along with Kreitzer. She said in a manager’s report that the complaint about the road being widened was “not the case.” “FEMA and State representatives took a number of measurements to document the actual work,” she wrote.

Kreitzer said she had also asked for a copy of the complaint that initiated the investigation, but hadn’t received it. Al Kavallo, disaster assistance manager with the state, said he didn’t have a record of a complaint either. Daggett, with FEMA, said the agency had received questions about the project from citizens before the August site visit. She said the site visit revealed work outside the scope of the project that prompted the agency to hit pause on reimbursing the funds, or “deobligation” in FEMA terms.

“We don’t deobligate funds without a specific reason,” she said. “The staff person is still working on the report, but Phase 1 was supposed to be in-kind repair, and there were some elements beyond that. When they were in the field they also saw some actions by a third party.”

Daggett said FEMA is working to rescope the project into a single project instead of the three-phase original plan.

FEMA had already allocated about $40,000 for the design work, Daggett said. The borough paid the remainder of the $1.4 million costs, which it expects to be reimbursed for once the investigation is completed.

Kreitzer said the suspension is not a final determination, and will last until FEMA completes its investigation. FEMA officials declined to give a clear timeline for when it might finish rescoping the project.

“A lot of it depends on when the applicant can tell us what they have done and what regulatory compliance they’ve done, and what they will do in future phases,” said Daggett. “It’s hard to say (how long it will take) because we don’t understand what they’ve done.”