Palmer road projects start this summer

PALMER — The state intends to start work next summer extending Dogwood Avenue and Felton Street and widening the eastern end of the Palmer-Wasilla Highway.

Dubbed the Palmer-Wasilla Highway Easter Terminus Project, the idea is to provide an alternate route for traffic in Palmer. The state had initially considered creating a couplet of one-way streets through the city. But staunch opposition squashed that idea and the slate of road upgrades were proposed as a replacement.

Dogwood runs behind the Fred Meyer store and, very briefly, continues on the other side of the Glenn Highway. The idea is to push it west. Simultaneously, the state would extend Felton Street north from where it ends now at the Palmer-Wasilla Highway to meet up with the extended Dogwood. Felton Street connects to the highway near the West Coast/Alaska Tsunami Warning Center.

Meanwhile, the Palmer-Wasilla Highway will get a new center turn lane from Hemmer Road to Felton Street and will expand from three lanes to five lanes from Felton to the stoplight at the entrance to the Carrs parking lot.

The Mat-Su Borough has a separate plan to extend Felton from where the state will leave it at Dogwood farther north to connect to Arctic Avenue on the eastern side of Palmer High School.

Eric Miyashiro, project manager for the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, said that at one point the state considered including a roundabout in the project. But that idea has been scrapped and a new stoplight will be added at Felton and Palmer-Wasilla Highway.

“The design is complete. We are kind of working with the utility companies to do utility relocations and there are just some right-of-way issues that we need to resolve there,” Miyashiro said.

“Right-of-way” is a government term for land needed to build a project. In this case, Miyashiro said, the state already owns more than half of the parcels it will need and is negotiating for the remainder.

How quickly the state is able to complete those negotiations will dictate how soon it is able to start turning dirt. Project timelines aim to begin this summer.

“Depending on us acquiring all of the land that is our intent,” Miyashiro said. “Maybe late summer.”

He said the project is likely to require two seasons to complete.

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