Officials mull Knik Arm Bridge traffic questions

KNIK — How ready are Mat-Su Borough roads for the Knik Arm Bridge?

The bridge has been in the news lately for a number of reasons, including a proposed $150 million state appropriation to cover shortfalls between toll revenue and developers’ costs and moves to buy homes and property in Anchorage’s Government Hill to make way for the project.

Knik Arm Bridge and Toll Authority officials have said that the Anchorage side is more complicated than the Mat-Su side because the bridge will land here on what is essentially undeveloped land. There are fewer landowners to contend with. Indeed, the biggest landowner is the Mat-Su Borough.

But that lack of population means there’s also a lack of infrastructure. There are probably three roads into the area. Knik-Goose Bay Road is one of the most dangerously over-capacity roads in the state. Nobody at the state or borough disagreed with a Frontiersman reporter’s description of Burma Road as a “goat trail.” And Point MacKenzie Road is short ending at the port, feeding into Knik-Goose Bay and Burma.

So how, exactly, is truck traffic heading between Anchorage to Fairbanks supposed to cover the 20 or so miles from the Parks Highway to the bridge?

A lot of people are asking that question right about now.

Mat-Su Borough Public Works Director Shaune O’Neil described the quandary the borough faces as, “getting people from the port to the Parks without using KGB and without plowing through the middle of Big Lake.”

There are a few projects out there people are working on. Alan Kemplen, a planner with the state’s Department of Transportation, listed these three:

• Upgrading Burma Road. The project is in its initial phases. The state has $10 million for it, which might get them to the step of acquiring right-of-way on which to build the road.

“It’s for reconnaissance and preliminary engineering and depending on what emerges out of the effort it could be for right-of-way acquisition,” Kemplen said of the funding. “It’s probably not enough for construction, definitely not enough for construction.”

• Realigning South Big Lake Road. The current South Big Lake Road is windy and narrow.

“That one is on hold,” Kemplen said. “The department put together a reconnaissance report for it and it’s waiting for it to be made a priority for (state general fund) funding.”

• Upgrading the Parks Highway between Wasilla and Big Lake. This project is along the route traffic would potentially take, but is well outside the port area. The project will begin construction soon.

And while that might not seem like a whole lot of preparation, Mike Foster, chairman of KABATA, said there is still plenty of time.

“We’re two years away from construction starting, that’s our projection. It takes four years to build it,” Foster said.

Something that sometimes gets lost in the debate, he said, is that bridge traffic isn’t going to arrive all at once the second the ribbon is cut and the span is open. A lot of projected bridge users will be people who haven’t moved here yet. Indeed, the bridge itself is planned to open as a two-lane span then expand to four lanes. KABATA has also committed to more than just the 14,000-foot bridge. Including the span, KABATA has signed up to build 18 miles of roads; two thirds in Mat-Su, Foster said, and one third in Anchorage.

With a bridge in place, KABATA says, land in Point MacKenzie will be very attractive for people who work in Anchorage. And as homes are built there, bridge traffic will increase.

“Nobody’s going to make the improvements before the demand is there,” he said.

Of course one place where demand is already there is for truck drivers who would rather not have to go through downtown Wasilla.

Using the bridge as, essentially, a Wasilla bypass, would mean routing traffic through the Big Lake area somehow. Which, as one might guess, has people there pretty worried.

“We see the obvious impacts of bigger trucks, more traffic and that particular road that you’re talking about it runs by a school, commercial areas, residences, all that stuff,” said Big Lake Community Council President Seth Kelley. “It’s going to have some real obvious impacts.”

Part of the reason people in Big Lake are mulling possibly incorporating to become the borough’s newest city is that without taking that step, residents say they worry their voices won’t be heard as plans move forward.

Lobbying from Big Lake managed to land the borough $250,000 from the state to study impacts of both the bridge and the planned railroad spur to the port on the community. Kelley said he expects to get both the good and the bad from that report. An uptick in customers for local businesses, for example, would be in the “pro” column while trucks rolling by a school would be in the “con” column.

“It’s going to tell us what the traffic patterns will be, how it’s going to affect the economy, schools, safety, those kinds of things,” he said.

But Big Lake is kind of in a tough spot.

“We’re in favor of the port, we’re in favor of the projects that are going on,” Kelley said.

The community would by-and-large rather not see that development run over what’s considered its downtown area — that stretch of Big Lake Road containing the East Lake Mall, library, fire department and post office.

Kelley said a committee on the council is examining possible routes for a bypass to send traffic around Big Lake.

“It should have been done a long time ago. They knew that they were expanding the port but they didn’t give any thought to a bypass. And they could have put something together with the railroad,” he said.

That last bit Kelley said about the railroad is a reference to the right-of-way the state purchased to bring rail service to Port MacKenzie. In an ideal world, he said, that would have been a dual railroad corridor/highway project, since the spur is set to run through less populated areas around Big Lake. But for now, he said, the community council is looking at what other solutions are out there.

“There are a lot of compromises that we can look at. A bypass road is one of them, certain zoning so that the speed limit drops considerably when they come through the core area is another,” Kelley said. “There are a lot of different options that are real cost effective.”

Everyone — Kemplen, Kelley, Foster — agreed that all of these conversations essentially boil down to one thing: how does the borough cope with growth?

One thing Kemplen and Foster agreed on was that growth is something you plan for. KABATA predicts that with a bridge in place on its timeline, by 2035, Point MacKenzie will be essentially another city, with nearly 2 million square feet of retail space.

Kemplen said the state isn’t using KABATA’s projections and is currently working to update the borough’s long-range projections, using as one of the base assumptions that the bridge is going to be built.

If KABATA’s numbers are right, he said, a whole lot of roads in the area — Knik-Goose Bay Road, the Parks Highway — are going to need a whole lot more lanes. Or there are going to have to be some big new roads added.

But if KABATA is wrong, he said, he worries public dollars to cover bridge costs might wind up taking away from other needed Mat-Su-area road projects.

Asked about a scenario in which a bridge would be a bad idea, Foster goes straight to his bottom line on the bridge.

“If we shut our door, turn the lights off and we’re not going to bet on Alaska then the bridge is a bad idea,” he said. “I’d bet on Alaska and if I’m going to bet on Alaska I need to bet on what infrastructure we need.”

He said he sees the bridge as a boon to Southcentral. DOT, he noted, is working on a plan for a possible Wasilla bypass to run through the Fairview Loop/Knik-Goose Bay area. The bridge and related infrastructure could remove the need for that. The state projects that sooner or later the Glenn Highway is going to need to be six lanes all the way to the Parks interchange. A bridge and its related feeder roads could change that project, too.

And excess toll revenue — KABATA predicts $1 billion dollars in the first 35 years of the bridge’s life — can help build projects like bringing a road to Tyonek and all the resources there.

Editors note: This is the first part in a series of stories look at Mat-Su Valley growth and its impacts on local infrastructure. This installment looks at Mat-Su Borough roads and their readiness for additional traffic that could result from the construction of a Knik Arm Bridge. The next installment will look at Knik-Goose Bay Road specifically and explore plans to improve this dangerous and over capacity road.