The central landfill could get a new entrance away from 49th State Street

The Borough is planning to move the entrance of the Valley’s landfill away from a busy residential street by creating a new road extension.

The 620-acre Mat-Su Central Landfill sits at the southern end of 49th State Street in Palmer and is adjacent to the Crevasse Moraine Trail System, with some portions of that recreation area woven onto designated landfill property. The landfill accepts household waste, construction debris and some hazardous materials. But with up to 700 vehicles entering a day during the busy summer season, traffic into the landfill frequently backs up from the entrance, clogging access to nearby housing areas, officials said.

Now the borough’s public works department has a plan to ease that congestion by relocating the entrance away from that street. And work on the newly required road expansion has already started.

“If you live in the neighborhood, obviously, you've experienced that back up, and with that comes obvious concerns,” said Jeff Smith, the borough’s solid waste division manager. “How do the neighbors get into their own home or out of their home? How does emergency traffic come in and respond to any sort of emergency that might come up?”

Long term area road plans call for Chanylut Circle, which borders the landfill, to extend about a half-mile to connect to Trunk Road. Landfill officials had originally planned to fix their entrance flow problem by using that connection. But with no set timeline for that work, they are instead planning to extend Chanylut Circle past its current terminus near the recycling center and create a new entrance in the southern section of the landfill.

A proposed public easement required for the entrance construction is open now for public comment on the Borough website through March 15. Clearing work required for the road expansion is already in progress with construction set to occur this summer. Assuming the easement is approved, the new entrance and corresponding weigh station is likely to fully open in the spring of 2025, Smith said.

Moving the entrance will mean users are rerouted by the Valley Community for Recycling Solutions (VCRS) facility rather than coming in without ever passing it. Officials hope that shift encourages more users to take the extra step to drop off cardboard and other easy-to-recycle materials at the recycling center instead of simply dumping them.

Smith said giving the recycling center cardboard and other materials means his staff doesn’t need to sort it and pass it on from their facility after it gets dumped.

“At the landfill we get people coming in with trash and cardboard, and we say, ‘look, if you take that cardboard down to VCRS, you can drop it for free.’ And they'll say ‘we’re not going to take the time to do that, we're gonna throw it away,’” Smith said. “And we’re like, okay, yeah, we'll recycle it here, but you can bring it here and pay for it. And I’d just as soon send it over VCRS and let them have it.”

As a part of the new entrance and road expansion Smith said he also plans to expand other re-use options at the landfill, including construction materials resales and a composting area that could provide nutrient-rich compost to local gardens and farms.

Officials with VCRS, which operates as a nonprofit, said they support the new entrance plan in hopes that it will expand use of their facility.

“Rerouting traffic past the recycling center will be an important next step as we continue to partner with the Borough to improve recycling opportunities in the Valley,” Tam Boeve, the centers executive director, said in an email.