Bogard Road extension breaks ground

PALMER — It’s the biggest project the Mat-Su Borough has undertaken and an effort that has been more than six years in the making.

The Bogard Road Extension, when complete, will be the final link in a road corridor stretching from Butte to Meadow Lakes and passing three of the Valley’s largest high schools along the way.

It’s a $22 million project and includes both a pedestrian underpass large enough to accommodate a horse and rider — appropriate, of course, seeing as how the road runs past the Equestrian Acres subdivision — and the first borough owned and operated stoplight. Stoplights in the Valley are generally state-owned and -maintained.

Mat-Su Borough Transportation Planner Brad Sworts said at the Friday groundbreaking ceremony for the project that the likeliest scenario will be that the contractor — Scarsella Brothers Inc. — will build the embankment this summer, let it settle, then pave the route next summer. Scarsella also is the contractor that build the two-phase Trunk Extension project.

According to a map the borough distributed at the groundbreaking ceremony, the road will be two lanes — on the Palmer end it will be two lanes with a center divider — but built with a road bed capable of expanding to four lanes as future traffic requires.

The borough is even looking at a possible $7 million phase II that would upgrade Felton Street and upgrade intersections near Colony Middle and High Schools.

In his remarks at the groundbreaking, Mat-Su Borough Manager John Moosey said population growth has exceeding the capacity of the area’s roads and schools.

“The infrastructure is now catching up,” he said. “I’m proud of our team here. It gets it done.”

Mat-Su Borough Assemblyman Matthew Beck hailed the road as an alternative to the Palmer-Wasilla Highway, which, “we all know has become one of the most dangerous roads in the state.”

Palmer Mayor DeLena Johnson also was on hand for the groundbreaking because, in addition to a road, the project includes a water main for the city’s water system. She said the goal is to get the Colony schools hooked into city water.

She told a story about sitting down with Mat-Su Borough Mayor Larry DeVilbiss to talk about the idea.

“Larry said, ‘well, it only makes sense if we do it during the construction,” Johnson recalled.

A few state grants later and the two ideas — extending Bogard and extending the water main — were wed.

“When all the right people are working together, great things can happen and they happen quickly,” Johnson said.

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