Meadow Lakes road rage

Feb. 25, 2007

By Kristen Seine

For the Frontiersman

MEADOW LAKES - If plans for a Parks Highway upgrade go the way the state wants them to, residents of Meadow Lakes say their community is as good as gone.

More than 100 people turned out for the Feb. 14 meeting of the Meadow Lakes Community Council. It was Valentine's Day, but there was not a lot of love in the air. The council had asked state Department of Transportation and Public Facilities representatives to come and discuss plans to turn the two-lane thoroughfare into a four-lane divided highway, similar to the Glenn Highway leading into Anchorage.

Residents say the plan, as is, effectively will destroy businesses along the Parks, stunt new growth and kill the sense of community they are working so hard to nurture.

Dennis Linnell of Hattenburg, Dilley & Linnell, a consultant for DOT on the engineering and environmental aspects of the plan, explained the proposed changes to the council. In essence, the plan calls for a separated highway with two lanes going in each direction, beginning at Church Road and continuing through to the Big Lake junction.

There would be interchanges with traffic lights at Stanley, Vine and Pittman roads, and some access points where drivers could turn left onto the highway. There would be short frontage roads in some areas. However, many drivers would have to use what DOT calls &#8220indirect left turns” to access the highway.

Anne Brooks, public participation coordinator for the project, explained the term.

&#8220You make a right turn onto the highway, merge into the left lane, and make a U-turn at the next opening,” she said.

The openings would be placed roughly a half-mile apart, Linnell said. In many cases, drivers could only exit using right turns.

The idea, Brooks said, is to reduce the number of &#8220contact points,” or potential accident sites, along the road. A DOT hand-out states that left-turn lanes reduce the potential for rear-end collisions.

Construction could begin as early as 2010.

Opposition to the plan in the Meadow Lakes community was widespread. Some felt the highway is designed to move traffic through the budding community at a high rate of speed - away from businesses that survive off that traffic.

Former Mat-Su Borough Assembly member Betty Vehrs said, &#8220Do we really want to discourage our businesses from moving to Meadow Lakes?”

Vehrs said it's possible some people driving the Parks would be willing to continue down the road until they found a turning-around point, make a U-turn and come back to a business, but realistically, &#8220unless it's a destination business, that's not going to happen.”

Jan Richardson, owner of Alaskan Trails RV and Camper Park near Mile 48 Parks Hwy., said she and her husband have put a lifetime of dreams - and money - into their business. She fears drivers won't bother taking the effort to make a U-turn into her site, and wondered whether larger vehicles would even be able to.

&#8220I cater to those campers and RVs,” she said. &#8220That is my business. All that traffic is going to have to go to Denali, I guess.”

Several people were concerned they wouldn't be able to safely merge into oncoming traffic, especially during busy summer months when tourist traffic is at its height. And some were worried about merging into the left-hand lane - traditionally the faster of the two lanes - only to slow down in order to make the U-turn.

&#8220To cross into the fast lane to turn left is crazy,” said Steve Belka, another Meadow Lakes resident.

Meadow Lakes resident Mike Janecek suggested DOT change its plans and create a five-lane highway from Vine Extension through Johnson Road, where the majority of the businesses are, and where the Meadow Lakes Comprehensive Plan eventually calls for the city's center to be located.

He called for a show of hands of those who support the divided four-lane highway, and no one responded. When he called for a show of hands in support of a five-lane, however, support was nearly unanimous.

&#8220We are a community here,” Janecek said. &#8220From Vine to Johnson, this is a little town. I want you to keep that in mind in your planning.”

Rob Campbell, central regional preconstruction engineer for DOT, was not at the meeting Wednesday, but other DOT staff referred questions to him the next day.

&#8220What you have to understand is that, with a lot of projects, such as this one, there are several different user groups that will need to use the facility. There are the local residents, yes, but there are also, for example, long-distance truckers, EMT vehicles or school buses,” Campbell said. &#8220Quite often, you have to compromise, and that unfortunately leaves some groups not satisfied 100 percent.”

The highway was recognized last year as one of the deadliest in the state, in terms of fatal accidents. Campbell and other DOT officials said the divided four-lane highway proves to be the safest model.

&#8220This area (from Church Road to Big Lake) does have a fairly high accident rate,” he said. &#8220So there is a safety component here that cannot be ignored.”

People at the meeting Wednesday argued it is possible for the highway to follow the five-lane model, with a 45 mph speed limit, both in Wasilla city limits and in Houston, and so it's workable for Meadow Lakes.

While officials at the meeting Wednesday repeatedly stressed that DOT's long-range plan does call for a four-lane, divided highway through the community, Linnell, the consultant, said Thursday by phone that nothing is set in steel at this point.

&#8220We heard over and over again last night that people believe we aren't listening to them. That is not true,” he said. &#8220We purposefully did a lot of listening and not a lot of talking last night. We are listening.”

Linnell said the plans have not even been approved by DOT and the Federal Highway Administration, and that &#8220we're still very early in the process yet.”

Frankly, he said, &#8220I don't know if there is a chance” that DOT will change the project to the point where a five-lane highway would be put in with a lower speed limit. However, he said, &#8220This is the point where things can still get changed. This is the time.”

Written comments regarding the Parks Highway plan (Mile 44 to Mile 52) can be mailed to: Anne Brooks, Public Participation Coordinator, Brookes & Associates, 301 W. Northern Lights Blvd., Suite 440, Anchorage, AK 99503 or faxed to (907) 743-6087.