New Trunk Road set to open early

PALMER — Instead of putting the project to bed for the winter, the state announced Friday it plans to open the new portions of Trunk Road next month.

“We were just able to get it done early and it made sense to open it up,” said project manager John Waisanen.

He said the plan is to have it open in “full service.”

“It will be open from Palmer-Wasilla Highway all the way to Palmer-Fishhook,” Waisanen said.

The roundabout at Trunk and Bogard roads, near Colony Middle and Colony High schools, has lately been host to traffic jams during peak traffic hours — before and just after school.

Mat-Su Borough Assemblyman Warren Keogh, who represents the area of the borough containing that intersection, said he hasn’t received any complaints.

“I assume people are being patient in anticipation of things getting better,” he said in an email.

Waisanen said he’s not sure the traffic is any worse than it used to be. When there was just a stop sign at Old Trunk and Bogard Road, parents waited at least 20 minutes each morning to get through.

“I think once we take the stop signs down at Old Trunk Road, when we open it up that should alleviate a lot of that,” Waisanen said.

Removing those stop signs is part of the plan for the new road. Not part of the plan is closing down any parts of the Old Trunk Road currently open.

Waisanen said there needs to be time for people to figure out access routes for their properties.

Which, actually, is something that’s kind of vexing the borough right now. Included in the $16.2 million in bonds proposed on the Oct. 1 ballot is $3.3 million to create an alternate access to Pioneer Peak Elementary.

The school, which has a driveway a stone’s throw from the Old Trunk/Palmer-Wasilla intersection, is set to lose that access when the new Trunk opens.

Assemblyman Jim Colver said the bulk of that stretch of road will be closed.

“It’s part of the wetland permitting, to open up the natural flow of the water,” he said.

Also going away is the stoplight at Old Trunk and Palmer-Wasilla.

Colver said it’s unclear when that’s going to happen, but it is clear Pioneer Peak needs a new driveway. Currently the plan is to route traffic through New Trunk.

Fixing that problem is the only the third most expensive access issue included in those bonds. A bridge to complete the road to Machetanz Elementary is the most expensive at $4.5 million.

Second, is $3.5 million to upgrade Lucille Street and its pathway to fix access to Tanaina Elementary. Other schools on the list include Cottonwood Creek Elementary, Goose Bay and Knik Elementary, the planned high school and middle school off of KnikKnackMudShack Road.

As to why the borough has to bond to pay for roads for schools it’s already bonded to build, Colver said that’s a weird quirk of state law. He said the state has ruled that school bond money can’t be spent on so-called off-site improvements — building roads to schools or utilities to schools. He said he thinks the borough should look at possibly getting that changed in state law.

“A lot of these rules they don’t make a whole lot of sense,” Colver said. “It’s the sort of thing that I’m in government to fix.”

As for the New Trunk, Keogh said that he’s concerned about whether the Palmer-Wasilla Highway’s intersection with Trunk is going to be sufficient.

“I am concerned that we are fast approaching gridlock in the Palmer-Wasilla Highway/Trunk Road area, and that we need better traffic analysis and planning,” he said in his email.

The assembly apparently agrees with him. In May, that body adopted a resolution asking the state to get together with the borough to hammer out access issues and the congestion.

“Current traffic impact analysis findings show that within five years the Palmer-Wasilla Highway will be near gridlock at the Trunk Road intersections,” the resolution states.

It also notes that a big new traffic magnet is planned to come on line in the form of a planned shopping center on the southwest corner of the New Trunk/Palmer-Wasilla intersection.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.