Let there be light

Commuters concerned over the looming lack of daylight can rejoice in the fact that one of the most dangerous stretches of highway between Anchorage and the Valley will soon be bathed in artificial light.

An $8 million project to install light poles along the four-mile stretch of Glenn Highway near the Palmer Hay Flats is nearly complete, with crews testing circuits and turning on power this week. According to Alaska Department of Transportation project engineer Ryan Baumgartner, the entire project should be completed within the month.

“The job’s been very straightforward, we didn’t run into anything unexpected,” Baumgartner said on Tuesday as crews put the finishing touches on the project.

According to DOT spokeswoman Shannon McCarthy, the project was funded with federal National Highway System money earmarked for highway safety. The dark stretch of road is notoriously hazardous in the fall and winter, when low light and a large moose population in the area combine to make the highway a white-knuckle experience for drivers.

“It can be a very pleasant drive,” she said. “But when the weather is bad it can be much less pleasant.”

McCarthy didn’t have recent crash number, but for the period between 2004 and 2009 – which was used by government officials during the planning phase – she said there were 138 vehicle crashes on the four-mile stretch between mile 27 and 31, including one fatality. Many of those crashes involved moose, which she said shoule be significantly reduced once the lights are turned on.

“We’re expecting a 60 percent decrease,” in moose vs. vehicle crashes, she said.

McCarthy said DOT also expects other crashes (such as vehicles running off the road) to be cut by 25 percent.

Crews installed a total of 132 45-foot-tall highway lights at 300-foot intervals, 124 bridge lights and six high light towers that are 140 feet tall. The installation of those towers – which are located near the Glenn-Old Glenn interchange – were installed in a rather unique way, Baumgartner said.

“Those high towers were were installed with a Chinook helicopter,” he said.

He said the main construction company working on the project, Northern Powerline, used the choppers to put the poles in position in one night on July 21.

“We’ve never done it that way before,” he said.

Baumgartner said motorists can expect to see crews alongside the highway finalizing the project for the next couple weeks, after which time drivers will be able to drive uninterrupted between the Valley and Anchorage secure in the knowledge they’ll be bathed in the steady glow of lights from above the entire way.

“That’s the idea,” he said.

For more information on the project, visit www.alaskanavigator.org/projects/glenn-highway-eklutna-to-the-glennparks-interchange-mp-27-to-31-continuous-lighting

Contact Frontiersman managing editor Matt Tunseth at matt.tunseth@frontiersman.com or (907)352-2268