Short on time: City upgrades Swanson Avenue

WASILLA — As the weather turns colder, the city is squeezing in one last road construction project before the snow flies.

Of course, if you’ve been on Swanson Avenue behind Carrs recently, you already know that, what with all the detours and traffic cones.

Wasilla Mayor Verne Rupright said fixing Swanson has been on his list for awhile.

“That thing’s been needing rebuilding for a number of years,” he said.

The area, he said, is kind of a problematic one for the city, because it used to be swampland.

“The Carrs building is actually built on a different kind of a foundation to get it out of the swamp,” he said.

So the project will address drainage issues on the Crusey Street end of Swanson, with 2,000 feet of new storm drains going in there, according to city bid documents. The funding came from the state in the form of a $500,000 appropriation in the fiscal year 2011 capital budget. Mostly, though, it’s a repaving project — and a sorely needed one at that, the mayor said.

Swanson is a major thoroughfare for the city, drawing traffic into downtown and the businesses there from Crusey Street.

“It’s key to coming into the grid to the post office to Krazy Moose, (and to the Meta Rose shopping center),” he said.

It’s also the best way to get to Carrs’ loading docks.

“Trailer truck traffic is enormous because of the resupply,” Rupright said.

As for the tight time frame, the mayor said that the money was in hand and the road needed it, so he told his public works director, Archie Giddings, to get the project done this year rather than next.

“I said, ‘Let’s get it done,’” the mayor said.

On Friday, he said the bids had come in less than a month prior and the city plans to have it all wrapped up just as construction season ends.

“They should be up and out of there by around the beginning of October,” Rupright said. “They’re working nights. They’re humping right along on that project.”

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