Borough officials plan Bogard Expansion open house

PALMER — Even though some Bogard Road construction has started, borough residents can still suggest changes to plans at a Wednesday open house.

That’s in part because construction work along the road is divided in to two projects. One of them is the oft-proclaimed punch “through the wilderness,” and aims to connect Bogard to Church Road, officials said. The other runs the opposite direction, stretching the road from the area of 49th State Street through to Arctic Avenue, borough officials have said.

The open house, which stretches from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday, isn’t built around a central presentation, said Anne Brooks, whose Anchorage-based company Brooks and Associates is putting on the open house, and coordinating public comment on the project.

The project design team is looking to get public feedback on changes involving school access and intersection control, Brooks said.

“There have been lots of rumors about roundabouts or stoplights, and that’s what we’re looking for feedback on,” she said.

The choice essentially comes down to long-term maintenance and construction costs stemming from the potential operation of traffic lights at the heavily trafficked intersections near Colony middle and high schools verses the upfront expense of building a roundabout, which would not require electricity to function, though cost isn’t the only consideration, Brooks said.

“What’s probably more important: roundabouts tend to slow traffic down, and maybe that’s a good thing by the schools,” she said.

Affected entities include residents of a nearby subdivision, as well as business owners in the area, and parents of students, both returning as well as new students, Brooks said.

“When kids are within walking distance to school, it’s always about how close the traffic will come, and how will our improvements make the crossing safer,” she said.

While public feedback could help designers make decisions about which methods to employ and how the final project will look, it’s probably too late in the design phase to make some large-scale changes or remake the project altogether, Brooks said.

“You’re probably going to see the same number of lanes going through,” she said.

Contact Brian O’Connor at 352-2269 or brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com.