Going places

PALMER — The daily task of getting getting tens of thousands of Mat-Su Borough residents from Point A to Point B is a growing concern for local and state agencies.

Whether it’s by sea on the M/V Susitna ferry, on the tracks of Alaska Railroad Corp. or over the miles and miles of asphalt that pave the borough’s main arteries, local residents got an eyeful Thursday at the Mat-Su Transportation Fair. The cities of Palmer and Wasilla, Alaska Railroad, the borough and state Department of Transportation spent four hours at Raven Hall on the Alaska State Fairgrounds explaining and answering questions about a myriad of transportation projects.

At the borough’s display, Palmer resident Fay Von Gemmingen was examining a large map of the ongoing Bogard Road Extension project.

“I’m looking at Bogard Road there and trying to figure out when it’s going to be shovel-ready,” she said, adding she learned something important. “I learned just how close it is to my house. It goes right in front.”

Events like the transportation fair are “humongously important,” Von Gemmingen said. “We’ve got a borough that is 80,000 people and we’ve got to move those people every day.”

She’s concerned because many of the borough’s roads were designed to serve a population of about 15,000 or 20,000.

“Some of them are barely two-lane roads and some maybe need to be four lanes or have a turn lane,” she said. “I think it’s really vital to know what’s going on in your community. I like to know how far along (projects) are, if they’re in the design stage or just the dream stage.”

One transportation initiative well past the dream stage is the M/V Susitna ferry, which is scheduled to be on line by 2011. Borough spokeswoman Patty Sullivan spent time at the fair discussing what has been at times a controversial project.

Whether a fan or opponent of the ferry, which will run from Port MacKenzie to Anchorage, “people are passionate,” she said of the opinions she’s heard from residents. “Many of them are demanding to know when is it coming? How are we going to land it? How will we get in there (at Anchorage)?”

The ferry is nearly 1,000 tons, 198 feet long and 55 feet high. Having another way to get from the Valley to Anchorage is a huge step for local transportation, said Margaret Heaven, a Wasilla resident.

Heaven is looking forward to riding on the M/V Susitna.

“For one, it should cut down on some of the traffic it takes to go around to get to Anchorage,” she said. “Also, for the tourists, it’s going to be a really neat thing. For another, it’s a continuation of transportation across the inlet from the earliest settlers.”

The ferry is one small piece of an overall transportation need for the Valley Heaven calls “so terribly important; very, very, very important. There’s a lot in the works and there are a lot of tax dollars that better be spent right.”

Along with highly publicized projects like the Bogard Road Extension and ferry, other transportation plans were also on display. In Wasilla, Alaska Railroad is nearing the end of a six-year $70 million project to straighten and realign tracks from the Valley to Anchorage. One of the last pieces is the South Wasilla Railline Relocation, which straightens a four-mile section of track near the Parks Highway between mile markers 154 and 158, said Mark Peterburs, a railroad representative.

Straightening the track will eventually shave about 30 minutes from a rail trip between the Valley and Anchorage, he said. It also will improve safety and reduce fuel costs. In Wasilla, it also means the tracks will no longer go around The Ranch subdivision to the north. Instead, they’ll bisect the development.

“We actually entered into negotiations with this property owner before it actually became a subdivision,” Peterburs said. “It was planned before he sold any of the lots.”

Along with also educating people about the planned Port MacKenzie Rail Extension, which will connect the port to points north in the borough, Peterburs was interesting in learning about the other projects.

“I am dying to (walk around),” he said. “I’m pretty interested in the ferry. I’m from Anchorage, so that’s one I noticed.”

One of the busiest areas of the fair contained information on multiple state Department of Transportation projects, including several alternatives of a planned realignment of South Big Lake Road and a booth promising to be a “guide to navigating roundabouts.”

The Valley’s first roundabout is scheduled to open on Tuesday at the south end of the new Trunk Road near Mat-Su Regional Medical Center. John Waisanen, the project’s manager, said the roundabout has become a point of debate.

“Change seems to be the biggest concern we’ve heard,” Waisanen said. “Roundabouts are not high-speed, they’re not complicated.”

What makes roundabouts preferable to a traditional intersection with traffic signals is that they can handle a greater volume of traffic and are generally more safe, he said.

“If you do have a collision, they’re more glancing blows going in the same direction,” he said. “At an intersection, you see more T-bones or head-on collisions. It takes just one person to run a red light to create a fatality.”

While statistics show roundabouts are safe alternatives, Valley motorists can expect to see an initial increase in fender-benders at the trunk road junction, said Ron Martindale, a DOT traffic expert at the fair.

“We may have more (accidents) initially, but the severity will be much less, mostly fender-benders,” he said. “As drivers learn it, that’s going to become less.”

Valley drivers can get used to having roundabouts, Waisanen said. When Phase II of the Trunk Road project begins next summer, it includes building another roundabout at the road’s intersection with Bogard Road.

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.