Road construction season not expected to delay many drivers

MAT-SU — As construction seasons go, it’s actually looking like it will be a relatively tame one for the Valley this year.

The state Department of Transportation has six projects that should affect local drivers this year, according to Mat-Su Area Planner Allen Kemplen.

The first and most obvious to anyone who has driven on the Palmer-Wasilla Highway recently is the project to build a new Trunk Road. This is Phase I of the project and ends at the Palmer-Wasilla Highway, Phase II starts next year and completes the route to Palmer-Fishhook Road.

DOT estimates that there will be no road closures, though there will be traffic restrictions — those cones and flaggers you’ve been seeing — and it should all be wrapped up by July 15.

Next on Kemplen’s list is a project to add and replace road signs along Knik-Goose Bay Road and the Parks Highway.

DOT is also planning to resurface the Glenn Highway east of Sutton between mileposts 109 and 118.

Fourth on the list is a project to light the last dark stretch of the Parks Highway between Anchorage and Palmer. A DOT contractor will install the lights between Birchwood and the Palmer Hayflats, with no lights expected to be switched on until the fall.

Fifth is a project already under way to add shoulders, passing lanes and other safety improvements to 11 miles of the Parks Highway between Willow Creek and the Kashwitna River Bridge. That one also won’t close the road, but will restrict traffic. It won’t wrap up until the end of September.

Finally, there’s a project to lessen the grade on the Point MacKenzie Access Road. Shoulders will also be widened, drainage improved and signing installed.

Brad Sworts with the Mat-Su Borough said that the project is actually a joint borough-state project paid for with a federal earmark.

“Because its federal funding, DOT has to actually construct it,” he said. “We have some staff that are overseeing that, but it’s mainly being constructed by DOT.”

Aside from that, he said, the borough doesn’t have any major road projects under way this year. There are many that are getting ready to go, but none he thinks will break ground this summer.

Next year the state will widen Seward-Meridian Parkway and begin Phase II of the Trunk project.

“Next year’s going to be a busy road construction year,” Sworts said.

The borough has a dozen or two smaller projects it’s working on, fixing up local subdivision roads. Those projects are generally small in scope and should be accomplished relatively quickly.

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