Construction season well underway

MAT-SU — It’s Alaska and it’s the summer, so it’s probably not news to anyone that orange cones and traffic flaggers have sprouted along many local roads.

The state Department of Transportation and Public Facilities recommends people wondering about projects in their area visit alaskanavigator.org, where you can sift through projects using an interactive map of road closures. But, to save you some of the trouble, here’s a quick rundown of this year’s larger projects:

Parks Highway and Stanley Road

Judging by the skid marks on the highway, not everyone is aware this new stoplight is operational. But it is. The light is part of what the state is referring to as phase 1 of “near-term improvements” on the Traffic Safety Cooridor between Mile 44 and Mile 52.

That’s the same stretch of road that is set for a massive expansion project, plans for which are being hammered out, but call for four lanes with a center divider. It’s slated for construction from 2014 to 2015.

The project is expected to wrap up July 1 and cost $2.4 million, according to DOT figures.

Trunk Road

By the end of the summer, project managers say, you should expect to be driving on a roundabout, but since it will only be open on Bogard Road and not on Trunk Road, it won’t really be an intersection. Not yet, anyway.

Project managers expect that the new Trunk Road will be built, but not paved this summer, wrapping up in August 2014.

Still, this summer has already seen delays and is likely to see more.

The project is one of the largest the Valley has seen in recent years, considering that it entails constructing a four-lane divided road from the Parks Highway to Bogard Road and an straightened road all the way to Palmer-Fishhook Road.

This second phase, from the Palmer-Wasilla Highway to Palmer-Fishhook, will cost $18.18 million, according to DOT figures.

Peck Street and Bogard Road

This project has the area filled with cones as crews widen the road.

The eventual goal is to have a “fully actuated traffic signal,” according to DOT’s website. It also calls for turn lanes at the intersection and a suicide lane or, in DOT parlance, a “continuous two-way left turn lane” on Bogard Road between Peck and Crusey streets.

The project cost is $3.93 million, according to DOT statistics.

Flood repairs

The state Department of Transportation and Public Facilities’ website lists as under construction emergency repairs in Willow, Talkeetna, Wasilla and Butte to damage done during the fall floods last year.

The Frontiersman identified a total of $565,000 in planned projects.

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