ALL ABOARD

WASILLA — State legislators, borough officials, and state Department of Transportation employees got an earful Monday at a meeting on transportation issues.

Issues raised ranged from the parochial — installing a crosswalk in front of Snowshoe Elementary — to the grandiose — upgrading the Parks Highway into a four-lane divided road with limited access.

Paul Duclos expressed both. He asked that when the Knik Arm Bridge project gets up and running the state look at routing traffic through Willow rather than through Big Lake. And then he asked for some support getting to his house on an island in Big Lake in the winter when ice roads are constructed.

He said he and his neighbors pay road service area taxes but, “We have to plow our own road to get out on the lake.”

Sabrina Shaw asked for the crosswalk. She also said she worries about gravel on bike paths on Knik-Goose Bay Road and dust clouds kicked up by ATVs that bring traffic to a standstill. She said the project to upgrade Fairview Loop should include a bike path. At least one legislator agreed with her.

“I’d like to have a bike path there too, that’s why I put in for $38 million,” said state Rep. Bill Stoltze. But that money got whittled down to $22 million, he said, and, “the road has to be our first priority there.”

Stoltze also chimed in after a number of speakers described the stoplights going in on the Palmer-Wasilla Highway both favorably and unfavorably as “Band-Aids.” He said any project to do a major upgrade of the road is going to be very expensive. Which, he said, doesn’t imply that stoplights are cheap.

“They’re expensive Band-Aids but really they’re the best things we’ve been able to do because there just hasn’t been $100 million lying around,” he said.

Dave Glenn said all the new stoplights on the Parks Highway need to be better coordinated, saying that by not timing them right the state has contributed to fuel and repair costs for local drivers. He directed some of his comments to DOT’s Deputy Commissioner Frank Richards, who was seated with the legislators.

“I think Mr. Richards and his crews should be ashamed of themselves,” he said.

Central Mat-Su Fire Chief James Steele said that, nationwide, a large percentage of emergency responder deaths occur in traffic, either driving to or from a scene or on scene dealing with an active roadway. This, he said, speaks to a need to thin out traffic on area roads.

“The increase in traffic volume has brought an increased level of risk to emergency responders,” Steele said. This year, he said, “We have had three near-misses of our own . . . one of the responders was actually brushed by the rearview mirror” of a passing car.

A number of speakers represented different interest groups.

Mary Ann Pease, speaking on behalf of the Knik Arm Bridge and Toll Authority, said the bridge is a good idea.

Lois Epstein, director of the Alaska Transportation Priorities Project, said that there are other, possibly better solutions for the problems the bridge seeks to solve.

Epstein found herself in the minority, however, when nearly everyone else who chose to speak about the bridge sang its praises.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.