DOT hosts annual Mat-Su Transportation Fair

WASILLA — The annual Mat-Su Transportation Fair put the Alaska Department of Transportation , various local entities, and the general public all under the Menard Sports Center’s roof on Thursday.

These are the three core pieces of the Valley’s driving puzzle and according to DOT Central Region Regional Traffic and Safety Engineer Scott E. Thomas, all the pieces need to work together during the Valley’s dangerous construction limbo with too many vehicles, too little pavement and too many impatient drivers making unsafe decisions that's taken several lives in 2018.

“The Valley is outgrowing its roads,” Thomas said.

At least five people were killed on Knik-Goose Bay Road in 2018, making this year one of the deadliest years in recent history. There are currently two projects, one state and the other local. The state project aims to reconstruct the existing two-way road from Commodore Lane to Settler’s Bay Drive, establishing a four lane dived roadway with pedestrian facilities, turn pockets, access controls, and other related improvements, based on the DOT’s project face sheet.

“We all drive down the Glenn, we all drive down the parks,” DOT Group Chief of Highway Design for the Central Region, James Amundsen said. “Let’s face it, there’s a lot of people that live here and work in Anchorage- and vice versa… A lot of Anchorage folks come here to recreate.”

Amundsen recommends calling 511, which provides daily updates on traffic, weather watches, hazards, planned events, alerts and other road conditions to be wary of before leaving the driveway.

“Nobody has it all figured out but there’s tricks and other things like this fair to help educate the community You get it all in one place,” Amundsen said. “That’s really what it’s all about.”

McCarthy puts retro-reflective clip-on badges on all of her kid’s coats and boots.

“You can see your own reflection better than drivers on the road and may think you’re good,” McCarthy said. “You need it; you need that distance to be seen. Pedestrians are more vulnerable than a motor vehicle driver; they have no steel box around them.”

Seventeen people were killed state-wide in pedestrian fatalities, according to DOT Media Liaison, Admin Operations Manager Shannon McCarthy.

“When you’re walking along and not thinking about it, that’s what gets ya killed,” Amundsen said.

Fall presents an interesting challenge for all Alaskan drivers. The rising and setting suns shine brighter as the seasons change and that could play one of many roles that result in all types of accidents on and around the road. September, October, and November are the highest rates of pedestrian/vehicular accidents, according to McCarthy.

“Maybe it’s that it’s darker and there’s no snow so there’s no contrast,” McCarthy said.

Left turns are most always a longer wait than a right. The DOT is currently looking at ways to establish more left turn lanes as possible in the Valley, particularly on the ever brimming traveled Palmer-Wasilla Highway.

“The odds are good that someone else is trying to hit a gap too… It’s not enough to fix the main road; you need a way to get to it. If we plan on just the main roads, everyone suffers… There’s different kinds of trips,” Thomas said.

The two KGB projects are slated for 2020 and 2021. The state project’s design is about 75 percent complete, according to the fact sheet. Amundsen said to hold on during this “long and painful process” to reach out to DOT about any project.

“Public involvement makes a project better for everybody,” Amundsen said.