Alaska Railroad’s 2024 bridge rehab, rebuilding program has Mat-Su projects planned

The Alaska Railroad has an ambitious bridge rebuilding and repair program underway in 2024 including several projects in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough. Eight projects along the 500-mile railroad are planned requiring $90 million in new investment, with $39 million planned to be spent in 2024.

Built a century ago, the railroad spans the distance between Seward and Fairbanks and has played a vital role in the development of Southcentral and Interior Alaska, including the Matanuska-Susitna Borough.

But keeping the critical infrastructure in repair is important.

Seven bridge rehabilitation and bridge replacements are planned in the Mat-Su in the railroad’s five-year plan including three rehabilitation projects and one bridge replacement south of Palmer; bridge replacements near Wasilla and Willow, and a rehabilitation project near Talkeetna.

Further north, three bridge rehabilitations and one replacement are planned near Hurricane, south of Cantwell.

The Talkeetna bridge rehabilitation attracted attention in the local community where residents were concerned that a pedestrian walkway on the bridge would be widened enough to allow passage by four-wheelers, which the community did not want.

Local residents were assured that the walkway width, now at 47 inches, would not change in the rehabilitation project. Forty-seven inches is sufficiently wide and safe for pedestrians and compact four-wheelers, but not larger all-terrain vehicles.

Railroad officials met with community on April 1, following a previous meeting and open house last October, said Meghan Clemens, the Alaska Railroad’s spokesperson.

“Staging will begin in late summer; and bridge work will begin in late September,” on the Talkeetna bridge, Clemens said in an email.

The Talkeetna bridge is 400 feet long and has two spans, and crosses the Talkeetna River.

One of the more challenging projects in the five-year plan is rehabilitation of the 870-foot Hurricane Gulch bridge near Hurricane, south of Cantwell. The Hurricane Gulch bridge is a popular subjects for photographs because it spans a deep gorge and can be seen from the nearby Parks Highway.

Work is also being planned for rehabilitation of the railroad bridge across the Kashwitna River north of Willow and the Matanuska River south of Palmer.

The railroad operates over some of the oldest infrastructure in the state and some of the bridges have been identified as eligible or potentially eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. One hundred and seventy five bridges and large culverts have been built with steel, concrete and wood or a combination of these materials.

Some of the wood bridges and wood components are more than 50 years old.

Keeping the bridges in good repair is not only important for safe operations of passenger service, but also the safe operations and efficiency of the railroad’s freight business, its major source of revenue. Freight trains must now limit the loads they carry on rail cars to accommodate the weight capacity of bridges, which is significantly lower than the rest of North America’s rail freight network.

Most of the railroad’s bridge work is funded with Federal Transit Administration funds that require a 20% match from the railroad. The remaining bridge projects are internally funded by the railroad.