Large crack develops in Big Lake ice road

BIG LAKE — A large crack has developed on the Big Lake ice road following the most recent earthquake. Volunteer plowers say the road is still safe, but for the 3,500 Big Lake residents, the safety of the ice road is a daily concern.

“It’s progressing, but I guess the crack has gotten wider and it’s seeping more water up. But all in all, I doubt that it’s going to present a great problem unless we just keep getting 40 degree weather,” Mat-Su Borough Assemblyman Dan Mayfield said. “It’s just something that I’ve advised the Big Lakers to keep an eye on to see if the crack gets any bigger and see if we have a lot more water come up.”

Mayfield and his wife are part of the network of volunteers that plow the road. A magnitude 4.6 earthquake struck near Big Lake on Tuesday night, and the Mayfields determined the safety of the ice road on Wednesday morning. A crack nearly 300 feet had developed by Thursday afternoon, and water has seeped up through the crack to form a puddle at the end of the crack. The crack is located east off the south shore campground past Burnt Point.

“We’ve got earthquakes happening every day out here,” said Kevin Weeks. “We saw the crack and the overflow through it, which was weird, and I see that they plowed around it anyways and we’re still 20-22 inches of ice so it’s pretty thick.”

Weeks spent Thursday fishing all around Big Lake.

“The first thing when we got onto the ice, we drove out to the super shallow and just checked it to see how much ice was out there to see stability and what not. The first hole we had about 24 inches so we felt pretty good,” Weeks said. “We’ve been pretty much on every square inch of this lake today and driving a two-ton truck.”

Mayfield said that other puddles have developed, but residents should not be concerned unless warm weather persists. Mayfield is active on the Big Lake Trails Inc. Facebook page, and photos of the crack had nearly 500 shares by Thursday.

Mayfield says that even though the tight-knit community of Big Lake is only around 3,500 residents, the population swells on the weekends with ice fishers and snowmachiners who come to Big Lake to recreate.

In late December, the bodies of two snowmachiners were recovered from Big Lake. Vanton Pettigen, 66, and LaVerne Pettigen, 64, were both found in the water and ice of Big Lake. The deaths came less than a month after the 7.0 earthquake that struck Alaska on Nov. 30, 2018.

Former Big Lake Chamber of Commerce President Margaret Billinger said that the quakes have deterred traffic.

“That lake has been rocking and rolling and you’ll hear it snapping and popping,” Billinger said.

Billinger noted that there are no traffic counts for the lake, but from her vantage point on a bluff over the lake, she has not seen the typical amount of traffic.

“The diehards are always going to drive on the lake,” Billinger said. “The earthquake shook up a lot of people and people have a lot of feelings compared to before. With the tremors there’s not been as much.”

Though there may be some trepidation to travel on the ice road, according to those who use it, it remains safe to travel.

“The crack itself didn’t bother me too much, but there were a couple of places where the crack had spidered. We basically assessed it whether or not a tire would fall through. It didn’t look like it would. We tried stomping on it, that kind of thing. Cathy ran her vehicle on the left side and then the right side of it and everything looked good. Nothing was moving,” Mayfield said.

The ice is still safe for vehicles at between 18 and 20 inches, but there are spots with naturally occurring springs that contribute to weak ice. The road sees hundreds of cars daily for traffic and recreation, and those numbers grow exponentially on weekends. Mayfield says that there are no reliable traffic counts, but ice road drivers should be aware of the conditions before driving on the ice road.

“We steered clear of it, saw the overflow on it and obviously there’s seepage somehow. Instability is never a good thing, especially when you’re driving a big truck so we cruised around it and just stayed away,” Weeks said.

Contact Frontiersman reporter Tim Rockey at tim.rockey@frontiersman.com.