Circular logic for Trunk Road

PALMER — The new Trunk Road is starting to look more and more like an actual road, and with it will come at least one major change to the way traffic moves throughout the Valley — a roundabout.

The state Department of Transportation is holding a meeting Thursday to answer questions and instruct local motorists on the use of traffic circles.

Traffic circles, called roundabouts, are well known to anyone who has traveled in Europe or spent much time at Dowling Road and New Seward Highway or a smattering of other intersections in Anchorage. They don’t have stoplights and instead rely on motorists’ observance of right-of-way rules to move traffic through. This would be the first major intersection in the Valley to have one.

The Trunk Road traffic circle will open this fall and is situated on Trunk Road where it intersects to the east with Georgeson Drive behind Mat-Su Regional Medical Center and to the west with Blue Lupine Drive, which will serve as access to the redesigned and rebuilt Park and Ride lot.

For now, at least until more of Trunk Road is complete, the road will end at the traffic circle.

The meeting to discuss the traffic circle will be held at the Fred and Sara Machetanz building on the campus of Mat-Su College from 6 to 8 p.m. in room 202.

The Trunk Road upgrade is a multi-phase, multi-year, multi-million dollar project that, when concluded, will have pushed a new, straighter road through from the Parks Highway to Palmer Fishhook Road.

Phase I carries a $22 million price tag, the full cost of which the state is paying. This is the phase that is under construction and will bring the road from Parks Highway to Palmer-Wasilla Highway, intersecting the latter with a new traffic signal just east of the current intersection.

The contract to build Phase I is set for completion next summer, though there is talk of perhaps opening it early. It will be a four-lane divided road with a 55 mph speed limit and a bike path, as well as no steep hill to climb above the UAF Experiment Farm.

There is no date yet to begin constructing Phase II, at least not according to the project’s website, which also states that design for that phase is set to wrap up this year. DOT officials have said previously that the hope is to have Phase II start as soon as Phase I is complete.

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