Parks Highway trees will need to be replanted

MAT-SU -- The Alaska Department of Transportation spent about $500,000 last year on landscaping along the renovated stretches of the Parks Highway near Trunk Road, but some residents have noticed a flaw. Namely, most of the trees are dead.

"What happened, I'm not sure," said DOT spokesman Murph O'Brien. "They're still under warranty, so the dead ones will be replaced."

Landscaping contracts, O'Brien said, are guaranteed for two years. If the plantings die out or fail during that time period, he said, the responsibility is on the part of the contractor to replace them.

O'Brien said the trees had been planted late in the construction season last year and may not have got a good start. But there may be an issue of incompatibility. The project plans included pine trees, but the pines planted stood little chance of surviving in the area.

O'Brien said DOT is trying to see if the pines can be replaced with more compatible spruce trees.

The landscaping is being done with enhancement funding -- a portion of the highway cost is set aside for enhancements such as landscaping and paths, he said. Similar enhancements are planned for the remaining upgrades to the Parks Highway as it reaches Wasilla, as well as landscaping and some sculptural elements at the Glenn and Parks highways interchange.

The landscaping along the renovated portions of the Parks Highway represents a new partnership for DOT. An agreement had been worked out, O'Brien said, with the Mat-Su Borough under which the borough would maintain the landscaping along the highway. Although Borough Manager John Duffy said the borough is looking forward to seeing how the project works out, the maintenance won't start just yet -- not until all the plantings have got a good start, Duffy said, or in about a year. Although the partnership with the borough is new, landscaping has been a part of DOT's plans -- where it is required.

"In Anchorage, there's a landscaping requirement," O'Brien said.

When DOT began talking about the changes to the Parks Highway as it runs through Wasilla, city officials made it clear they didn't want lane after lane of asphalt. At public meetings and with meetings between Wasilla and DOT officials, plans for the landscaping were put in place years before the construction will begin. And like the borough, Wasilla will take over the maintenance after the work is complete.

Kathy Wells, a landscaper and borough resident, has been involved in the planning process for the Parks Highway landscaping. Although she was disappointed DOT had so many problems with the plantings, she hopes the landscaping along the Parks Highway will continue.

"I want to encourage DOT to start to make this a common practice if they receive the money for it," Wells said. She added that it's refreshing to see the department adopting other aesthetic and environmentally beneficial ideas, like leaving more of the natural vegetation in place when they build or expand roads.