Construction has begun on the Glenn Highway

PALMER — Concerned Palmer residents came to the Train Depot to get information on the upcoming summer construction to the Glenn Highway.

Dozens immediately flooded Department of Transportation staff and began asking questions about what, when, and where local motorists could expect delays.

“Most of the questions have been specific to peoples defined travel routes to and from business or to and from where they live, so we’ve been looking at options for them on how they will still get to work, to their recreation activities, and to their homes,” said Todd Smith, project manager for DOT.

The project has been years in the making and crews initially began the visible parts of the project this month. Medians have been removed on the Glenn Highway in preparation for a four lane divided highway with an indented grassy median and a handful of new traffic lights to ease congestion.

“Everybody’s wanted this for so many years and it’s so exciting to be able to provide that opportunity to serve the community and providing a better facility that both relieves some of that congestion that everybody’s experiencing but then hopefully we’re going to be saving lives. There’s a lot of people getting injured out there,” said Sean Baski, design project manager.

Baski said that one of the most difficult parts of the project’s progress so far has been the right of way acquisition. Gaski said that nearly 200 right of way acquisitions had to be ordered, from a tiny sliver on the corner of someone’s property line to the owners entire property. Some have been relocated due to the new construction. Phase one of the project will move from downtown Palmer toward Inner Springer Loop this summer.

“We have started in downtown removing the medians and getting things prepped, started at the Bogard/Arctic and Glenn intersection and work our way south. For the first half of the summer, downtown Palmer is our focus,” Smith said.

Smith said that utility relocation has been his main concern. Utility relocation started last fall around downtown Palmer as project engineers split the three-mile job into two segments. Construction crews will follow the relocation of utilities across the highway from the downtown area south towards the Glenn-Parks interchange. DOT will halt construction for the Alaska State Fair and continue work from Inner Springer Loop south in the fall.

“The improvements are designed with safety improvements in mind. All the traffic signals and the lights and the addition of the turning lanes and the merging lanes are definitely going to be a huge improvement for us and for traffic around the fairgrounds,” said ASF General Manager Jerome Hertel. “That’s going to be an improvement over the existing conditions right now by a vast improvement. Having two lanes that way and two lanes going this way, hopefully they can complete that for the fair and we’ll see those improvements this year. We’re going to look at it as a huge plus for the fair.”

The second phase of the project will begin in earnest this fall and is scheduled to be completed in the fall of 2020. Smith and project officials ask that those with questions visit the Alaska Navigator website where Smith will post weekly updates on what they will be working on.

“It’s such a large project, it will have huge positive impacts for the community,” Baski said.