Moose Creek public comment closes Thursday

CHICKALOON — An online open house for a planned 3-mile road upgrade closes Friday, though state officials say they’ll still take comments.

The online open house kicked off with a Sept. 9 face-to-face meeting at the Sutton Library, which drew about 50 people to comment on the Moose-Creek-Canyon-area changes to the Glenn Highway. The project from Mile 53 to Mile 56 of the Glenn will straighten a long downhill u-shaped bend in the road, and includes the construction of a new bridge downstream from the existing one, according to Department of Transportation and Public Facilities officials. In addition, officials plan to excavate a portion of the hillside south of Moose Creek, creating embankments on either side.

The open house is based around plans that have reached the stage referred to in the construction game as “30 percent design completion,” according to project manager Sean Baske.

“That’s more broad concepts than concrete specifics,” he said.

Next year, officials plan to introduce a 75 percent completion design, Baske said.

Local residents don’t oppose the planned $60-million project. They do have several concerns about the details, particularly the Chickaloon Village Traditional Council, based in Sutton. They worry that the nearby Ya Ne Dah Ah School, which serves elementary school students, among others, could see drivers step on the gas as a result of the straighter road, according to Lisa Wade, a council member and director of health education and social services.

“We have some pretty serious concerns about the speed that’s going to be created,” she said. “Our students access both sides of the highway.

“My concerns are really for the health and safety of our school, Wade added. Opening that (stretch of the Glenn) up makes a race track in front of our school.”

The existing road already experiences a large number of speeders, Wade said.

“We invite the police to sit routinely on our driveway,” she said. “It get’s pretty bad.”

Chickaloon officials say they hope a School Zone will be added to the road there, dropping the speed limit to 20 mph.

Straightening the road will actually make it safer, Baske said. The turn’s steepness has already caused several accidents, he said.

“There’s an identifiable need there,” Baske said.

In addition, the traditional council has asked for DOT to consider the way the downstream bridge will affect salmon spawning along Moose Creek, that they evaluate the possibility of including a pedestrian crossing in the area of the project. In addition, they’re hoping DOT officials will include both a pedestrian crossing and a footpath in the area, according to Wade. They also worry that plans for gravel berms on either side of Moose Creek to create an elevated rise for the bridge could go on top of a natural spring in the area.

For now, DOT officials are working to balance the idea of what local residents would like to see done in the area against what’s financially possible, Baske said. For example, one request was that a pedestrian pathway connecting Chickaloon and Palmer be constructed. While that might be a good idea, that’s not really possible given the scale of the project, Baske said.

“This is a three-mile stretch of road,” he said.

DOT officials have discussed constructing a pedestrian pathway for this particular stretch of road, Baske said.

Construction is scheduled to begin in 2018, according to the open house documents. In the meantime, a previously planned rural school zone flashing beacon project will bring lights to the area to notify drivers of the school. While that’s a step short of what the council hopes for the road, it’s a move toward eventually establishing a school zone, Baske said.

“I don’t want to pretend by any means that solves their problem,” he said. “That’s not their angle. They’re hope is to have a 20 mph zone.”

“It is a progressive step” for the council, Baske said.

Council members hope the state will take their input seriously, Wade said.

“We think about today and then seven generations into the future,” she said.

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Contact Brian O’Connor at 352-2269 or brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com.