Roadwork projects wrapping up for winter

MAT-SU — As summer comes to an end, the Mat-Su Borough is wrapping up a booming road construction season and warning of two late-season closures.

Seldon Road and Lucille Street

The project to turn the intersection into a roundabout and expand capacity in pretty much every direction is probably the biggest late-season closure. From Sept. 2 through Sept. 23, the borough plans to install the actual roundabout, which means a lot of concrete work.

“Detours signs are up, message boards were up,” said Borough Capital Projects Manager Mike Brown. “We also did mailers a couple of weeks ago to the area residents to let them know that the closure would be coming.”

Vine Road

The project to improve Vine is more-or-less done. Actually, the borough’s project has been for a while but a state project on a different segment of the road kept work going longer.

A separate project to replace a culvert where it crosses Lucille Creek could make this the second road to have a late-season closure. The borough wanted to get that done at the same time it was upgrading the road, but it didn’t work out.

“We’re working with Enstar on that because there’s a four-inch (natural) gas main that crosses that culvert,” Brown said. “We may still get to that replacement this fall if not we may cue up that work for next year.”

Fern Street

The project connecting Fern to Knik-Goose Bay Road has been a popular improvement since it cuts 10 minutes off the drive time of residents of the Fairview Loop area heading that direction, said Terry Dolan, the Mat-Su Borough’s Director of Public Works.

“I literally have had phone calls form people just thanking us for getting it done,” he said.

The improvement is so popular people started driving around the “road closed” signs before the borough opened it up. Enough drivers sped for the borough to ask the Wasilla Police Department for help cracking down. Officials remind drivers Fern is a 25-mph road.

“Every single time I go through there I see Wasilla police have somebody pulled over,” Dolan said.

The project isn’t quite done yet, though. There’s still sign work to be done. Workers will put up a few and take down at least one the borough is kind of nervous about. It’s a stop sign, no longer needed now that Fern is a collector road. Dolan said he’s hoping signs warning of a changed traffic pattern will help people adjust. Drivers accustomed to the old pattern might, for instance, take a left in front of a car they’re assuming is going to have to stop.

“As soon as I take that stop sign out there’s a potential for some dangerous accidents,” he said.

Mack Road/Clapp Street

Speaking of popular improvements: the completion of this project will let motorists on the south side of town bypass the traffic snarl in downtown Wasilla.

However, you still have some time to wait before you get to use it.

“They’re doing surveying. They’ll be doing clearing and then the majority of that work will be done next year,” Brown said.

Seldon Extension

This project will connect Seldon Road to Beverly Lakes Drive, further extending the Bogard Road corridor in that direction.

“It will connect into Beverly Lakes Road for the time being but there is a Phase 2 planned that would take the roadway westward onto Pittman Road,” Brown said.

He expects it won’t open up for traffic until fall of 2015.

Bogard Road Extension

On the other end of that east-west Bogard corridor, you might have noticed a bunch of dirt and missing trees where Arctic Avenue runs past Palmer High School. It’s part of the borough’s massive project to extend Bogard from its terminus just past Colony High School all the way to Palmer and connect to the Old Glenn Highway.

“Our goal at the end of the year — or at the end of the season, I guess — is to have the excavation work done so basically they should have the structural work in place,” Brown said.

This one also has a Phase 2, Brown said, which will include improvements to the intersection of 49th State Street and Colony Schools Drive. He said he’s also hopeful there’ll be funding to get a good intersection at the entrance to the schools’ parking lots. The idea would be to try to get both phases done simultaneously in the fall of 2015. The project is fully funded.

“I don’t foresee us seeking any further funding for Bogard Road East Extension,” he said. “I think we’d be frustrating some folks if we went back out and asked for more.”

Parks Highway

Though the current phase of construction is set to wrap up in November, additional work looms on the calendar.

This current phase is to expand the section from Lucus Road to Church Road into four lanes with a central turn lane, put up illumination and improve the pedestrian path.

The project, eventually, will expand the highway to four lanes all the way up to Big Lake Road.

“Travel will be restricted at night (8 p.m. to 5 a.m.), with a maximum 20-minute delay during paving operations,” the state website reads. “Traffic restrictions to be mostly conducted at night with occasional restrictions during the day outside peak commuting hours.”