Big bucks bound for Borough?

WASILLA — Roads in the Mat-Su Borough are on track to receive an influx of state money.

The state’s 2009 capital budget, which totaled $2.9 billion when the Legislature adjourned April 13, includes about $200 million for Borough projects, with a hefty portion of that going to roads, said Borough spokeswoman Patty Sullivan.

“It really came down very well,” Borough Manager John Duffy said of this year’s capital allotment. The budget contains “a lot of capital improvements that will be serving Valley residents 20, 30, 40 years from now.”

The budget is on its way to Gov. Sarah Palin, where it will face her veto pen. Assuming the money clears that hurdle, it will be on its way to the Valley. But that assumes Palin will have a lighter touch this time than when she signed the state’s supplemental budget early this month. That budget contained $7 million in Borough projects. By the time Palin was through crossing items off the list, the total dwindled to $410,000.

Palin said in a press release at the time that she hoped lawmakers would put some of the vetoed projects into the capital budget, as they seemed to fit better there. Duffy said all of the vetoed projects from the Borough made their way into the capital budget.

In a Borough statement, Assemblywoman Mary Kvalheim had good things to say about money for Valley Community for Recycling Solutions to build a recycling center. The $2 million project was axed from the supplemental budget but recycled in the capital budget.

“This program has done so much with so little. They saved 1,000 tons of waste from the landfill,” Kvalheim said.

As for the money’s chances of making it through the veto process, Duffy said, “So far so good.”

The big story for the Mat-Su Borough is road funding, Duffy said. Three projects will go to those roads deemed by surveys of traffic accidents to be among the most dangerous in Alaska:

• $6 million to the Parks Highway.

• $4 million to the Palmer-Wasilla Highway.

• $4.2 million to Knik-Goose Bay Road.

Duffy said that the Parks Highway money will go to building connector roads to fix a problem somewhat common in the stretch of highway between Wasilla and Big Lake.

“What’s happening is people in that area have to go onto the Parks Highway, take a left-hand turn go a half mile, take another left-hand turn to get to where they’re going,” Duffy said.

The Palmer-Wasilla Highway money will keep alive an ongoing project to upgrade and improve the road. This portion, Duffy said, will likely go toward widening the highway at the Palmer end. Other upgrades to the Palmer-Wasilla Highway include a series of traffic lights due to be delivered in May and installed later in the summer. They will be paid for out of last year’s state money.

The money for those three dangerous roads is dwarfed by funding for Trunk Road and Fairview Loop, set to receive $34 million and $22 million respectively.

Duffy also singled out as noteworthy the money heading to improve substandard bridges on Oilwell Road. The $3.7 million allocated to bridges will fix both problem bridges on that road, he said.

The Borough manager also said there is hope state funding could help spur development Port MacKenzie. The budget contains $20 million for a rail extension to the port and $5 million to upgrade Burma Road. Add to that Borough plans to pave Point MacKenzie Road this summer, Duffy said, and “it just makes it more possible.”