Federal funds to add high-tech signs to Valley’s highway safety corridors

WASILLA — Thanks to $150 million in federal highway funds, drivers along two of the Mat-Su Borough’s most dangerous stretches of road can expect to see new informational signs warning about road conditions and lane closures ahead.

Department of Transportation and Public Facilities spokesperson Jeremy Woodrow said the federal money will be paid over three years and was designated specifically for highway safety improvements.

Gov. Sean Parnell announced the planned improvements at a press conference in Girdwood Feb. 14. DOT says drivers can expect to see safety improvements along the Seward Highway this summer when five additional slow-vehicle turnouts will be constructed at Miles 75, 76, 108, 111 and 115. Modification and guardrail work also is planned this summer at Milepost 88, which is a high accident location two miles south of Girdwood.

In the Valley, Woodrow said the funds will establish an Intelligent Transportation System, which includes a centralized highway safety operations center, integrates real-time speed sensors, weather sensors, message boards and avalanche detection systems, adds call boxes and improves cellphone coverage.

“We’ll see some rollout in the next year or two,” he said. “Right now, the infrastructure isn’t quite there yet.”

Also planned in the near-term are upgrades to the state’s 511 Traveler Alert System, Woodrow said. The alert system works when called from mobile or landline phones, he said. And soon, mobile users also will be able to download an app for their iPhones.

“We are working on it and people should see changes in the near future,” Woodrow said.

He said the improvements will add interactive maps to the 511 system that show the speed traffic is traveling at in real time.

Two of four designated safety corridors in Alaska pass through the Valley and major upgrades are planned for both of those roadways: Parks Highway from Wasilla to Houston and Knik-Goose Bay Road from the Palmer-Wasilla Highway intersection to Point MacKenzie Road. But those projects are still years away from construction.

Woodrow said 70 percent of all accidents in these corridors are related to drive behaviors.

He said adding informational signage that gives drivers real-time information may help them make better decisions and further reduce crashes.

Statewide, serious crashes in safety corridors have been reduced by 53 percent through education, enforcement, engineering and emergency services, according to a DOT press release announcing the upgrades.

“We’re not just going to go out and put in millions in improvements without knowing it’s going to make it safer,” Woodrow said.

While major construction projects take several years to permit, design and build, he said these are some of the near-term things the state can do to further decrease serious accidents.

He said another near-term safety fix in the Valley is a new stoplight going in along the Parks Highway at Stanley Road.

Woodrow said the state had planned to have the light operating by now, but is waiting on parts to complete the project.

Now, he said the state expects to turn on the new light at the end of March or first of April.

Contact managing editor Heather A. Resz at 352-2268 or heather.resz@frontiersman.com.