Commuters put on notice

MAT-SU — If you catch a lift to work at the Park and Ride lot on Trunk Road, starting Monday you’ll need to park in a new spot.

According to the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, the parking lot will be closed for 50 days starting July 26.

But DOT plans to give drivers a replacement. The new parking lot will be a short drive from Trunk’s intersection with the Palmer-Wasilla Highway, on Westside Drive, which connects to the Palmer-Wasilla Highway.

“We looked for suitable flat open DOT- or state-owned locations and we just happened to have one,” said Joe Homme, assistant project engineer with the DOT’s Trunk Road project. “There’s a gravel pit there that had to be purchased as part of the right-of-way takes for Trunk Road Phase II.”

DOT says the permanent Park and Ride lot will be reconstructed and expanded while it is closed.

Starting the same day the park and ride closes, a portion of the road itself will be closed from South Woodworth Loop to North Woodworth Loop. DOT expects it should open back up about five days before the Park and Ride does.

In the meantime, drivers will be sent down Woodworth Loop, which, Homme said, means they will leave Trunk around where Mat-Su Regional Medical Center is and re-enter it near the University of Alaska Fairbanks experiment farm.

He said the department will continue its public information campaign, letting drivers know what to expect.

The project will be completed in two parts. The one under construction now, Phase I, carries a $22 million price tag and will build a new four-lane Trunk Road from the Parks Highway to the Palmer-Wasilla Highway, bypassing the hill above the experiment farm and eliminating most of the curves along the current route.

The new Trunk will follow a path slightly east of the current road. When that’s complete, the old Trunk will remain in place to serve as a collector road for neighborhoods in the area. Phase II will bring the new connection north to Palmer-Fishhook Road. Along the way it will meet back with the old road.

DOT representatives have said previously that the Valley shouldn’t expect to have a new road until next summer. The Phase I contract ends July 2011.

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