Palmer to tap into new Trunk Road

PALMER — A $3 million project approved by the city council last week will bring city water service to the area along a realigned Trunk Road.

The new pipe will extend north from the existing system at Mat-Su Regional Hospital terminating above Mat-Su College in a 1 million-gallon reservoir.

“We thought it would be a good idea, while they have the right-of-way opened up, to lay our pipe in there,” Palmer City Manager Bill Allen said.

Allen is referring to the project run by the state Department of Transportation and Public Facilities to straighten Trunk Road into a main north-south arterial. This is an area the city has looked at extending water service to anyway, Allen said, and laying the new pipe simultaneously will save the city millions of dollars.

The city is saving another $800,000 by hiring the contractors in charge of the road project, Washington-based Scarsella Brothers Inc.

The project is being funded by a combination of grants from state agencies and local matching contributions, Allen said. Of the $3 million total price tag, the city is liable for about $900,000.

Allen said the system will pick up businesses and residents along the road as well as Mat-Su College. Most are on private or community wells at the moment, but the arsenic level in many of the wells is high, he said. The city cannot force residents to link into the new water system, but at least it would give them a relatively inexpensive option to do so, he said.

“This is a big deal for us,” Allen said. “It sends a message that Palmer is preparing for future growth. It sends a message to the college that we want to be a college town.”

In addition to extending service six miles up Trunk Road, the new reservoir at the top of the line will give the city 12 days of emergency water supply at current usage rates, Allen said. Even in 20 years, the city predicts the reservoir will hold enough water for two days of service, a back-up level regulatory agencies like to see, he said.

The pipe should be laid this summer while the road crews work on Trunk Road, Palmer Director of Public Works Carter Cole said. Cole said he hopes the reservoir will be built, filled and operational by the end of 2011 building season.

Cole said the water pipes can only run up to the edge of the right-of-way. Residents, businesses and developers will have to pay to connect from their lots to the system.

“There is a couple ways they could connect to this thing,” Cole said. “They could set up districts to put financing together, or there is additional outside funding from agencies they could find.”

Cole said some neighborhoods already have water distribution systems in place and have expressed interest in hooking into the new system. He said he expects developers to utilize the system as they build new subdivisions around the new Trunk Road.

“This is one of those unusual projects that everyone is in agreement that it is a good project and needs to be done,” Cole said.

The city council voted 7-0 to go forward with the project.

Contact Todd L. Disher at todd.disher@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.