Highway business owners balance visibility, safety

May 14, 2006

BY DAWN DE BUSK

Frontiersman

MAT-SU - For the past 20-plus years, Natalie Ray, owner and director of Ray's Child Care and Learning Center, has witnessed the Palmer-Wasilla Highway evolve.

The thoroughfare has become busier as an increasing population travels east and west between Palmer and Wasilla. And the installation of stop lights at Trunk Road and North 49th State Street in 1982 improved the road's safety, she said.

&#8220Sometimes, parents wait 10 minutes or more. If they're turning left (onto the highway), they're not going to get out right away,” Ray said. &#8220It depends on the time of day. It depends on if the buses are out on the road.”

Typically, parents whose child or children attend Ray's Child Care are dropping off and picking up their young ones at peak traffic hours - early in the morning or in the evening when most people are heading home from a day of work, she said.

When she's behind the wheel, rather than fight the traffic, Ray goes with the flow.

&#8220If I have to go to my other center in Wasilla, between 4 and 5:30 or 6 p.m., I go toward Palmer. Then, I turn around at the first subdivision, or I go to North 49th State Street and turn around,” she said.

Patience seems to be the best bet when dealing with the congestion on the Palmer-Wasilla Highway, until other solutions occur, she said.

The Mat-Su Borough and the city governments don't see patience as a virtue when it came to improvements on the highway. Last fiscal year, when the state appropriated $6 million for environmental impact studies in advance of highway upgrades, the borough and the Wasilla and Palmer city councils stepped forward and asked if some funding could pay for intersection improvements, according to Brad Sworts, Mat-Su area planner with the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities.

Four residential roads with existing turn pockets - Hemmer Road, Equestrian Estates, Schelin Spur and Hyer Road - will receive improved intersections and traffic signals next year, he said.

The design work should be completed by September, with the actual construction taking place in summer 2007, according to Judy Dougherty, DOT project manager for the designs.

&#8220We have almost zero ground-disturbing activities, no new paving. The traffic signals are being installed as permanent installation, for their lifetime,” she said.

Ray said she favors more traffic signals, which create openings in the stream of traffic.

About 10 years ago, she persuaded school bus drivers to pull off the road and into the center's parking lot.

&#8220The buses were stopping on the road, and we had to walk around. It was scary,” Ray said. &#8220Once they started pulling into our parking lot as a pickup zone, it was better for the kids, and it helped the flow of traffic because vehicles weren't stopped behind the bus.”

Usually, parents with precious cargo in their vehicles aren't huge risk-takers, she said.

&#8220They're pretty cautious. We haven't had any bad accidents there that I remember,” Ray said. &#8220My other center is on Peck and Bogard, we have accidents there all the time. We had a truck turn over near the playground at our other center.”

A few miles away, in the Brentwood Plaza, Growing Spurts co-owner Barb Dippert frequently hears sirens of police and emergency vehicles heading toward car crashes. There tends to be even more activity and more car wrecks on Saturdays, she said.

&#8220There's a lot of accidents from the Frontiersman up to the Seward-Meridian stop light,” she said, referring to the stretch of highway roughly midway between Wasilla and Palmer.

From her storefront, she hasn't seen any vehicle bang-ups happen, although others have, Ray said.

&#8220Winter is a lot of worse because the road has a little bit of an incline. With the snow and ice buildup, people can't get out really well,” Dippert said. &#8220Customers say there's a lot more traffic on the Palmer-Wasilla Highway, and the speed is a big thing, too.”

Her two solutions are: To construct turn pockets along the more heavily-trafficked roads, and to reduce the speed limit. Despite the discomfort of getting on and off the Palmer-Wasilla Highway, customers still frequent her store. About six months ago, the Growing Spurts' owners toyed with the idea of moving to a safer location.

&#8220When I read that there are 14,000 cars a day going by the Palmer-Wasilla, I decided no,” she said. &#8220We do have a high visibility.”

Contact Dawn De Busk at 352-2252 or dawn.debusk@ frontiersman.com