KGB Town Hall to include DOT Commissioner

WASILLA — While the upgrades to Knik-Goose Bay Road are still not yet set to go under construction until 2021, elected officials and representatives from the Department of Transportation will hold a town hall meeting on Saturday. At Station 6-2 on South Mainsail Avenue, Senator David Wilson, Representatives Colleen Sullivan-Leonard, Mark Neuman and Cathy Tilton along with Department of Transportation Commissioner John Mackinnon and DOT Central Director Wolfgang Junge will hear testimony from some of the 30,000 people that travel KGB every day according to DOT estimates.

“People just want it to come faster and part of it is this is the fastest growing area in the state of Alaska so it’s hard to keep up with that kind of growth, but we’re trying,” said DOT Spokesperson Shannon McCarthy.

The town hall will be hosted from 1:00 p.m., to 3:00 p.m. to discuss KGB. The two projects awaiting construction in 2021 will total $160 million to construct the four lane divided highway. The state’s portion of the construction stretches from Vine Road to Settler’s Bay Drive and the Federal portion of the project moves from Vine to Centaur Avenue. Knik-Goose Bay Road was designated as a safety corridor in 2009, but December has statistically been among the most treacherous to travel KGB, with fatal accidents already recorded on KGB this year.