Roundabout solutions

WASILLA — The Mat-Su Borough touted transportation improvements planned for the next five to 10 years during a meeting with area media Monday.

Among the improvements, according to a Borough news release:

• Two roundabouts, one near the Mat-Su Regional Medical Center at Trunk Road and the other at Trunk and Bogard roads;

• A one-way couplet in Palmer on the Palmer-Wasilla Highway and Dogwood;

• The Susitna Ferry delivered in 2009 and launched in 2010;

• Planned new public transportation routes.

The meeting with the press came ahead of a Sept. 25 transportation fair at the Alaska State Fairgrounds’ Raven Hall. The fair will be a one-stop place to get information on Mat-Su Valley roads, rails and trails, the Borough said.

“Today’s event was really about drumming up awareness for Sept. 25,” said Rick Feller, an Alaska Department of Transportation liaison.

Feller said the fair will offer residents a chance to pose questions to the three major transportation entities in the Borough: DOT, the Alaska Railroad and the Borough itself.

Borough Mayor Curt Menard said the Borough is moving forward with a regional transportation authority and the experts are here to talk about it during the event.

Menard said recent economic woes, particularly those in the oil market, has spurned new thinking.

“What is stirring all this mass transit and our transportation plans and everything else is the price of fuel,” Menard said.

As the price at the pump continues to hover well over $4 a gallon for regular unleaded gasoline, many of the nearly 15,000 Valley-to-Anchorage commuters are cringing every time they drive to work.

“Now is the time for us to move forward,” Menard said. But to do that, Anchorage has to be on board too.

The idea of collaborating in a regional transportation authority with Anchorage is designed so when commuters from the Valley arrive downtown on whatever mass transit they might be riding, there is a good distribution system to carry them the rest of the way to jobs or homes.

Menard said everybody in the Valley and Anchorage has to be on board for a mass transit system to work.

“The key to the whole thing, and we’ll be working on it, is seeing how we can get the distribution in Anchorage,” Menard said.

Before that, however, the public is invited to Raven Hall at the Alaska State Fairgrounds from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 25 for the Mat-Su Transportation Fair.

Information about a laundry list of issues will be available and children’s activities can keep the young ones busy. For more information about the fair, contact the event organizer Anne Brooks at 907-272-1877 or a.brooks@brooks-alaska.com.

Contact Michael Rovito at michael.rovito@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.