Palmer closes main thoroughfare

PALMER -- With Alaska State Fair traffic just around the bend, Palmer has closed one of its primary streets.

As of Monday night Evergreen Avenue is closed from its junction with the Glenn Highway to Palmer City Hall as Wilder Construction begins a new phase of the city's water-main replacement project. As the project continues during the next weeks, the road will be torn up all the way to the four-way stop.

Evergreen is expected to be closed until at least the end of September. The contractor has until next summer to complete the second phase of work, which will go from city hall to the four-way stop. However, city officials say they are hopeful the contractor will be able to complete both sections of Evergreen by this fall. At the same time, blocks of the street might be opened as possible during the construction work.

Even with the most optimistic predictions, however, this will leave one of the town's primary access points blocked as thousands of visitors come to Palmer for the Alaska State Fair at the end of August. The timing isn't great, but Palmer officials felt it could be worse.

"It was slated for next summer, but when we found out Fred Meyer was coming to town … we decided to beat that rush," said Sara Jansen, community development coordinator for Palmer. Fred Meyer is building a grocery store on Cobb Street that is expected to open sometime next spring or summer. Knowing this will mean an expected 1,000 or more additional vehicles on Palmer streets each day. Jansen said city officials decided this summer to get a jump on the Evergreen project.

This summer's work won't include any major changes to the roadway itself. Once the water pipes are replaced, Evergreen will be re-paved but will remain the same width.

"We're pretty much up to our right of way," Jansen explained.

During the ongoing discussions about Fred Meyer coming to town, traffic experts have looked at various options for redesigning Evergreen, including adding a lane or reconfiguring the existing traffic pattern. So far, though, no plan has been finalized.

The nearly $500,000 Evergreen project is, instead, part of the millions of dollars' worth of pipe replacements around town funded largely by Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation grants. Fireweed, North Valley Way and other streets around the city have also been closed during various times throughout the summer as contractors have replaced water pipes, and those streets are expected to be re-paved before the end of the summer.

On Evergreen, the contractor will be digging about 10 feet down to decades-old pipes and replacing them with stronger, corrosive-resistant pipes. Jansen said the goal is to avoid breaks in the waterline that would probably be inevitable with the old piping.

"We're sorry for the inconvenience … but it is the price of progress," Jansen explained.

While Alaska State Fair traffic isn't normally directed along Evergreen Avenue, Jansen said the city recognizes people will be affected by the closure and is trying to alleviate that as much as possible. Signs warning of the road closure have already been posted along nearby streets, and more will be added soon. Traffic will be routed toward Arctic and, on the other end of town, Colony Way and Glacier View Avenue.

"We want people to use Arctic if possible because it's signalized," Jansen said.

Palmer administrators also recently met with the Mat-Su Borough School District, Alaska State Fair, Valley Hospital and ambulance providers to inform them about the road closures so the agencies could make any necessary changes in their transportation plans.