Seward Meridian set for summer repaving

WASILLA -- One of the most heavily traveled borough-owned roads will get a facelift this year, a preview of work that will be done along the roadway in the coming years.

Nearly 20,000 residents use the Seward Meridian Parkway between the Parks and Palmer-Wasilla highways every day, according to WHEN Alaska Department of Transportation traffic counts. Almost half that number daily use the northern portion that leads to Bogard Road.

That constant use is showing on a road that, although it stretches only 1.5 miles, is riddled with buckles, breaks and degraded asphalt. The road has been slated for improvements for a number of years, but as an arterial road -- a road that connects to the state highway system, takes travelers to major centers of activity in the borough and has average running speeds of 35-55 miles per hour -- it would be paid for by the people who live in the area and pay taxes into the local road service area fund.

But the assembly, Tuesday, approved a way to upgrade those roads without depending solely on funding from taxpayers who live in the area. A resolution unanimously passed allows other funding sources, such as land management funds, to be used for design and construction, as well as right-of-way or easement purchases necessary to develop the roads.

"We think it's unfair that road service area funds are used to fix arterials that are used by regional traffic," Borough Manager John Duffy told assembly members Tuesday.

Borough Assemblyman Jim Colver said he had been disturbed by the current scenario when the borough upgraded 49th State Street last year. Half of that project, he said, was paid for by landowners in the area, which Colver said was not fair.

The assembly agreed unanimously to allow funds to be used from other borough departments to help upgrade heavily used arterials, and Swing said the work should begin this summer. Although more than $2 million in construction will be done in the project, the project cost approved by the assembly was only $150,000.

Curt Devan, DOT's Mat-Su Area District superintendent, said DOT will be doing some of the work on the project. DOT generally performs winter maintenance on the road, which connects to three other state roads -- the Parks and Palmer-Wasilla highways and Bogard Road. DOT, Devan said, will bring in the materials to build up shoulders on the Seward Meridian Parkway and do some of the pre-cover, or initial work on the road. Wilder Construction, through a contract with the borough, will lay the asphalt, Swing said. No big changes will happen along the road, although plans are to put in shoulders in some areas and, to an extent, widen the approach to Bogard Road. Duffy said borough officials had met with representatives from DOT this week and discussed improving traffic safety at the Bogard Road intersection and, in the next few weeks, the traffic pattern at the intersection will be changed to become a three-way stop. By next year, Duffy said, DOT will install traffic lights at the intersection.

Borough officials recognize that the Seward Meridian Parkway, like the Palmer-Wasilla Highway and others heavily used by those in the core area traveling from one community to another, will never be a "finished" project.

"The Seward-Meridian will keep growing and growing," said assembly member Jody Simpson, "and the intersections … will be rebuilt and rebuilt."

Swing, in an interview last week, said the Seward-Meridian Parkway is in the State Transportation Improvement Project list to be upgraded to a four-lane road.

"That's four, five, maybe even six years down the road," Swing said. He said the roadwork done this summer is a needed patch. "We couldn't wait that long."