Traffic congestion has Palmer making plans

PALMER -- Fred Meyer or no Fred Meyer, traffic congestion in Palmer has city officials looking to some long-range planning.

Prodded by the possibility of Fred Meyer building a new store near the Palmer post office, city officials recently developed a draft plan for long-range transportation improvements. Among the possibilities -- a new access to the Glenn Highway near the post office, improvements to key roads such as Evergreen Avenue and Cobb Street, and extensions to roads such as South Felton Street and West Cottonwood Avenue.

When he presented it to the council last week, Public Works Superintendent Rick Koch emphasized it was just a draft plan of roads that "may or may not be built in the future." City council members, however, appeared to be enthusiastic about the plan and said it is much needed.

"This probably should have been done several years ago," Councilman Tony Pippel said. Pippel said he had heard concern from residents who say if Fred Meyer comes to town the traffic will be unbearable.

"At certain times of the day, the traffic already is unbearable," Pippel said. He said a new Fred Meyer store could provide the impetus to fix an already existing problem.

Other council members seemed to agree and said the plan was a good starting point to begin looking at how best to divert traffic throughout town.

One of the main discussions last week revolved around the limited access to the Glenn Highway in city limits. Koch explained that the federal government's aim was to keep the Glenn Highway as a main thoroughfare where traffic is not slowed down by stop signs, lights or urban speed limits.

Because the Fred Meyer construction could hinge on being able to develop another access on and off the Glenn Highway within city limits, Koch said the Alaska Department of Transportation requested long-range plans from the city in order to make its case to the Federal Highway Administration, also known as the FHWA.

"FHWA spent money to limit access to that highway," Koch said, describing the sections of limited access right-of-way land the federal government purchased along the Glenn. Each time the state has to go back to the FHWA to request another access to the highway, Koch said it has to provide evidence to back up its request.

Palmer's recent traffic plan could provide some of that support by showing that the city is looking at other ways to allow more traffic flow. But many of those at last week's meeting seemed to agree that ultimately travelers need more ways to cross the Glenn Highway. Much of the traffic congestion, council members pointed out, occurs along Evergreen and Arctic, the only two roads crossing the Glenn Highway in the city's core.

With these sorts of concerns in mind, several council members said the draft plan should not just stop in the preliminary stages but be passed on to the Planning and Zoning Commission and further finalized by the council and administration.