Road projects No. 1 priority for Borough

MAT-SU — The Mat-Su Borough has $1.2 billion in critical road projects in need of funding.

After a retreat this past weekend, the Borough assembly said road projects top its list of concerns.

Deputy Borough Mayor Lynne Woods said that, in the past, the top concern has been education, but that’s been passed by the increasing transportation needs of the growing area.

“[Education] seems to be being addressed by the Legislature,” she said, making transportation “our next big, big concern.”

Among the list of unfunded projects in the Borough:

• $20 million to re-align and widen Trunk Road into four lanes between the Parks and Palmer-Wasilla highways.

• $44 million to widen Seward Meridian Parkway to Seldon Road and adding utilities.

• $18 million to widen the Glenn Highway from the Parks interchange to Palmer-Fishhook Road.

• $70 million to widen the Parks Highway to four lanes from Big Lake to Wasilla.

The Glenn Highway widening was expected to begin three years ago, the Borough reports. This year might see $1.4 million go for design work on the project.

The feeling Woods said she’s getting from the state Legislature is that federal road money is drying up.

“We’ve reached a point where federal dollars aren’t coming in,” she said.

There has been talk of putting together a fund for roads, but the initial estimates show the fund would produce $50 million per year for road projects, Woods said. That’s less than 5 percent of the critical needs identified by the Borough, which means that even if implemented, it would take more than 20 years to bring the roads up to today’s needs.

Woods said she’s talked with officials from other boroughs and cities, all of whom have a list of projects that need addressing.

“We kind of feel like it needs to be more like $250 million to $300 million a year in projects,” Woods said.

The roads on the Mat-Su Borough’s list haven’t quite reached traffic levels that would constitute a crisis, but they’re getting there, she said.

“It’s not only impacting our citizens in accidents and all of that, … but how long does it take for a person to get to work?” Woods said.

Not only that, she said traffic tends to stifle economic development.

In addition to those projects listed, Knik-Goose Bay Road needs work and Seldon Road needs an extension. Burma Road has to be upgraded to accommodate increased traffic expected to come from Port MacKenzie.

It’s unclear how the state’s Department of Transportation intends to cope with the reduction in federal funds, Woods said.

“Sometimes I feel like they want us to do that on the local level,” she said. “There is absolutely no way that we can undertake maintenance of state roads at this time. I just feel like they need to step up to the plate and get these projects underway.”

Delays on road projects are not only frustrating, they’re expensive, she said.

“Five, 10 years go by and nothing gets done,” she said. “What starts out as a $15, $20 million dollar project now costs twice that amount.”

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