Potholes, mud pits return with spring thaw

WASILLA — Hikers hit the trails, trees start to bud, flowers start to bloom, birds start to return from the south, and muddy ruts begin to swallow sections of local roads.

Mat-Su Borough officials say this spring’s rapid thaw has created some issues for local drivers and presents a perennial challenge to maintaining portions of the 1,060 miles of borough-maintained roads. For example, a Talkeetna resident complained this year he was unable to traverse local roads to buy a piece of needed medical equipment to help treat diabetes, according to testimony at the April 5 borough assembly meeting. Issues with local roads during the spring’s warmer weather are nothing new: in May 2013, a fire engine and a tanker were damaged while responding a fire along mud-prone Stacy Street, according to the Frontiersman.

Muddy potholes can devour gravel or dirt thoroughfares like Wilderness Rim Road in Willow, or Echo Lake Road in Big Lake. The spring weather also affects paved roads, like Engstrom Road in the Palmer-Wasilla area, which in March featured a roughly one-foot tall frost heave in the middle of the road.

The issue isn’t so much the road’s surface as it is the materials underneath, said public works director Terry Dolan. For decades prior to the 1991 institution of the road service regime, local residents and contractors would build roads by simply scraping off the top layer of soil. The soils below that absorb water, which freezes over the course of the winter, then melts in the spring, Dolan said. The same seasonal change causes weight restrictions on borough roads.

The effects of the breakup can be mitigated by using materials in the roadbed less susceptible to absorbing water and angling roads to prevent pooling, Dolan said.

“Good materials and good drainage make for good roads,” he said.

However, past contractors have sometimes skimped on road materials, creating situations where the borough essentially accepts maintenance costs for hastily constructed roads, Dolan said.

“Ninety-five percent of our contractors are honest, hardworking folks,” he said. “From time to time you can get a bad apple who never intended to use the right material.”

The borough now inspects roads prior to taking over their maintenance, and insists on a one-year warranty between the time of completion and the time when borough maintenance starts. However, contractors aren’t the sole source of road flaws: utility companies can sometimes damage roadbeds immediately after construction is finished, Dolan said.

Public works employees also use large black mats anchored to the ground to distribute vehicle weight and prevent large vehicles from digging into soft sections of the road. The borough has about a mile’s worth of such mats, though they aren’t usually employed in the same location.

For some areas of the borough, a fix could be a long time coming. The primary source of funding for road upgrades is the borough’s 16 road service areas, which manage non-areawide taxes collected for road maintenance. The road service area funds first pay for routine maintenance and then additional maintenance. Whatever funds are left are set aside for capital road improvements.

“In Meadow Lakes, the north side of Wasilla, all of these area have capital monies that are available,” he said.

Improvements are a function of population density and property values in the RSAs, Dolan said. For example, a mile-long stretch of road in the central area can have as many as 100 houses on it. However, a mile-long stretch of road in, say, Sutton or Chickaloon, might have far fewer, Dolan said.

Borough assemblywoman Barb Doty lives in a subdivision off of Engstrom.

“The quality of that road, not initially, but when it was redone in 2008 and 2009, was not up to par,” she said.

Borough emergency responders simply drive around the mud where possible, said deputy director of emergency services Ken Barkley. During the winter, emergency responders can order up ploughs to clear roadways ahead of emergency vehicles.

There’s no similar on-the-fly fix for potholes, Barkley added.

“Potholes are potholes,” he said. “There’s nothing we can do about them. We have to adapt to the road conditions. It’s Alaska.”

Contact reporter Brian O’Connor at 352-2270, brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com, or on Twitter @reporterbriano.