Big plans for Big Lake

BIG LAKE - Looking into the future and seeing a rail spur and, potentially, a highway heading their way, residents here are hoping for $250,000 in state money to try and get a handle on what those Mat-Su Borough plans might do to their community.

The projects in question are a railroad spur the borough wants to build to connect the Alaska Railroad’s main line to Port MacKenzie, and the potential Burma Road/South Big Lake Road corridor that would allow traffic to bypass Wasilla and also link the future Knik Arm Bridge to the Parks Highway.

The Mat-Su Borough Assembly chose to put a $250,000 request for what it has dubbed the Big Lake Impacts Assessment on its list of 11 projects it would like to see the state fund for this year. That list was discussed Monday at a meeting between the assembly and the Valley’s state legislative delegation.

Big Lake Community Council President Seth Kelley said he was very pleased to see the borough put the impacts assessment on its list of funding requests.

“I think that, to me, the most remarkable thing about this is it just shows the whole Valley understands the importance of thinking ahead for projects,” he said.

The council’s vice president, Ellen Ruby-Markie, said the idea is not to stop any development — the community, she noted, has a long record of being pro-development — but simply to make sure it’s done right.

“We want to make sure that our area, our character, the environmental things, all of that is taken into account so we don’t end up kind of like, ‘Oh, that used to be Big Lake,’” Ruby-Markie said.

Cindy Bettine, who represents the area on the Mat-Su Borough Assembly, agreed, pointing as evidence of the community’s pro-business stance to a modular construction facility that recently chose to locate in Big Lake. Bettine said Big Lake doesn’t have to look far for examples of what a lack of planning can bring.

“Residents want the transportation plan NOW, instead of after the fact, like Wasilla,” Bettine wrote in an e-mail.

The corridors have the potential to divide Big Lake in half. But Markie said it’s more than that. Burma Road/South Big Lake Road in particular would likely blossom into some kind of arterial highway.

“We don’t want that kind of traffic going through our downtown,” Markie said. “It goes right by a school, it goes right by the post office, it goes right through what we coin our kind of downtown center.”

Not only that, but neither of those roads is able — at least not currently — to handle heavy truck traffic. Burma is unpaved and narrow. South Big Lake Road is narrow and includes a lot of blind curves.

What Ruby-Markie said she would most like to see is that the work to get that corridor ready for port traffic begin on the Big Lake end instead of on the Port MacKenzie end.

“It’s going to impact Big Lake, so let’s make sure that the developments and the improvements happen from Big Lake toward Point MacKenzie so we’re not an afterthought,” she said.

Kelley said he’s optimistic about how the request will fare in the upcoming legislative session.

“The legislators seemed pretty open to it. They’ve been hearing it for quite awhile,” Kelley said. “Hopefully, it all turns out pretty good.”

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

THE PROJECTS

The Mat-Su Borough Assembly met early last week with Mat-Su legislative delegates to discuss its list of priorities for projects to be included in the state capital budget. Here is the list the borough came up with:

• $55 million to continue construction on the railroad extension to Port MacKenzie. The project already has $62 million. If the borough gets $55 million this year, it will be back next year asking for $63.5 million, and the year after asking for $43 million.

• $29 million to extend Bogard Road. The borough says the project could begin in spring 2011 if funding is obtained. The project would extend Bogard from its current terminus near 49th State Street all the way into Palmer.

• $6 million to upgrade substandard roads and bridges. Some borough bridges are eroding and some are little more than a flatbed railcar placed over a stream. The state has deemed many of them unsafe.

• $4 million for Phase 2 of the development of a Nordic ski area at Hatcher Pass. Phase 2 will extend the access road, build a parking lot and a competition stadium and put in 10 kilometers of track.

• $5 million for the South Denali Visitor Center. The plan calls for a center on the south side of the mountain. The project is expected to cost a total of $35 million. The project has already received just under $10 million in state and federal funding.

• $7 million to complete improvements at the intersection of Seldon Road and Lucille Street. The borough says the intersection is dangerous and wants widened roads there with turn lanes and a traffic signal or roundabout.

• $1 million to do design work on a science and education center at the Palmer Hay Flats. Construction and permits are expected to cost an additional $5 million.

• $2.5 million for a visitor center for information on what to do in the Mat-Su Valley. The center will be on the Glenn Highway either near the Parks Highway interchange or at the Old Glenn Highway exit.

• The borough wants money from the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program for Phase 2 of the project building a new Trunk Road and to upgrade Seward Meridian Parkway and to upgrade Knik-Goose Bay Road, among others.

• $250,000 to study what impacts planned road and railway projects will have on the Big Lake area.

• $12 million to build a ferry landing for the brand new M/V Susitna, set to be a link between Point MacKenzie and Anchorage, currently plying the waters near Ketchikan.