Planned Parks Highway improvements take heat from residents

WASILLA — A Parks Highway expansion and improvement project slated to begin late next summer is already creating problems for residents and business owners along the route, who say the project, as planned, will permanently harm their road access and businesses.

The project, which could begin as early as August, 2019, will widen and repave a section of Parks Highway that stretches from Pittman Road to Big Lake Road through Meadow Lakes. It will also add a drainage ditch and extend into the community a bike path that currently ends at the Pitman Road intersection. The project is primarily funded through federal highway grants.

But the plan to shift the now two-lane road to a four-lane divided highway means drivers who want to access a business on the opposite side must do so through one of u-turn cut-throughs placed through the median about once every half-mile.

And because the state is widening the road by either purchasing land or using right-of-ways, some business owners say that they are also losing large portions of their current lots or access roads.

Among those at the forefront of the fight are Sylvia and Steve Childs. The operators of the Meadow Lakes U.S. Postal Service post office annex and general store at the corner of S. Rainbow Street and the Parks Highway, they said they experience steady traffic into their business six days a week.

The annex houses a full service postal counter and 1,100 mailboxes, many of them shared between multiple people, Steve Childs said. And all of those people need a way to get into the parking lot.

But the planned expansion eliminates direct access to the post office from the southbound lanes. Instead, he said, customers and both mail and regular delivery truck drivers coming from that side will be forced to make a u-turn about a half-mile south, and then back track north to the store.

And those who want to exit and travel south will need to either drive north to an access point after W. Swan Drive near Tew’s bus barn, or travel through a subdivision behind the store that has a planned new connection road to the highway.

None of those access options are acceptable to the Childs, who say the changes are more than just an inconvenience, they create a safety hazard on an already treacherous road. And because school buses also use their parking lot during the school year, Steve Childs said the plan also puts school children and their parents at risk.

“The state has decided not to buy any of our property, and by them not buying our property they don’t feel that we have a say-so on how the project is going to be done. We got a letter from [the DOT] commissioner that states that we don’t have really anything more to do with this here,” he said.

The Childs said they fear the changes won’t be acceptable to USPS, either. If customers have a hard time turning into the store and business decreases as a result, or if the multiple u-turns create a safety hazard, Childs said USPS could cancel the contract they’ve held with the agency since 2003.

“If we go through this process and the Post Office comes out and cancels my contract, I’m going to be suing,” he said. “I’m not done arguing yet. You’ve got to throw something at it. What I have to be able to do is be able to look at my customers and say we at least made an effort.”

Down the highway at the Roadside Inn, owner Brad Laybourn said the state is taking over a large portion of his parking lot and eliminating one of his entrances — but not paying him for it.

That’s because they don’t have to, he said. The Inn’s original owner gave the state the right of way to that part of the property, and now they’ve come to claim it, he said. The new bike path and drainage ditch, he said, will even end access to his current front door.

“It’s been this way since the building was built,” he said. “Now they’ll destroy a business the employs 16 to 20 people year round and feeds thousands of people.”

But DOT officials said that just because the Roadside Inn has been using the state’s property for many years does not mean that they had the right to do so now or going forward.

“In numerous situations businesses have been enjoying the use of state property without formal rights/permits to do so,” Jill Reese, a DOT spokesperson said in a statement. “In some areas, businesses used the state’s right of way to make their property functional. … Businesses are now concerned that the State needs the right of way for this project and, although they have been encroaching into the right of way for some time, believe that the state is causing inconvenience for the business.”

The Childs said they would accept as a solution to their problems state buyout of their property or the installation of an additional turn lane in front of the location. They said they’ve collected about 500 signatures on a petition they hope to present to the Department of Transportation.

“We the users of the Meadow Lakes Post Office are very concerned about the proposed expansion plans for the Parks Highway,” the petition reads. “We need a turn lane going south into our post office, or we need a new location which would provide us with access.”

Reese noted the decision to put the turn lanes only at half-mile intervals was triggered by the road’s designation as a “highway safety corridor.”

“The Parks Highway is currently designated as a highway safety corridor due to the higher than average crash rates and higher proportion of high severity crashes,” she said. “To provide additional median openings and left turn opportunities would compromise the safety features built into this project’s design.”

But the Childs and other residents and officials agree that a different, more expensive option would ultimately be even better: build the entire highway with a series of frontage roads. Doing so, they said, lays a groundwork that is friendly to future growth along the route while accessing giving access to the current businesses and residents.

“There needs to be other solutions, and I think this frontage road model is one going forward over the next 40 years that would be the answer, rather than doing what they are doing,” said Randall Kowalke, who represents the area in the Mat-Su Borough Assembly.

State officials said they have constructed some frontage roads along the three-phase project, which is currently in phase two with construction ongoing from about Lucus Road in Wasilla to Pittman. But they did not design the project to have those roads over the entire area.

“The compromise on this project was to provide frontage roads where feasible for adjacent residents’ and businesses’ access to the median openings,” Reese said in the statement. “In some areas along the corridor, the business customer will need to find a different route to the business once this project is constructed. This includes new routes along a frontage road, signalized u-turning, or along neighborhood streets.”

Kowalke said he is hoping to hold a Borough Assembly hearing with the Department of Transportation to get answers.

At the root of the improvement plan issue is a feeling in the community that officials at the Department of Transportation have simply failed to listen, said State Rep. Mark Neumann who represents the area in Juneau.

“They don’t want to listen to locals,” he said. “Wouldn’t you meet with the local people to find out what the problems are? Shouldn’t you sit down and talk with those people? And they wont do that. It’s just unheard of.”

Reese disagreed.

“We have convened countless meetings, answered many emails and phone calls and made changes to the design where practical and feasible and where the overall safety for the traveling public was not compromised,” she said. “Making every change requested by the public is not always in the best interest of the majority of the highway users. We want to remove the safety corridor designation on the Parks Highway and deliver a highway designed to reduce the high crash rates and associated injuries and fatalities and meet the needs of the public as this area continues to grow and flourish.”

Residents who wish to make comments about the plan are encouraged to attend the next Meadow Lakes Community Council meeting on July 11 at 7 p.m. at Birch Creek Villas, the Meadow Lakes senior housing complex.