Upgrades coming at last to congested — and dangerous — KGB Road

WASILLA — With two Department of Transportation projects set to start in 2020, Knik-Goose Bay Road on the north end of Wasilla, will have not just a new look, but more lanes and safety features to ease the heavy congestion.

KGB was designated a safety corridor in 2009 after it’s fatal accident rate was 3.8 times the national average. With the steady growth of the Mat-Su population, more people who make their homes down KGB are leaving every day to find horrendous traffic.

“Once any two lane highway reaches about 20,000 vehicles a day, you start to see congestion problems. And with congestion comes safety problems,” said Shannon McCarthy with Alaska Department of Transportation.

The new proposed right of way would stretch 134 feet across four lanes, 8 feet of paved shoulder and a 30 foot depressed median similar to the Glenn Highway. Two retaining walls along the West side are proposed along with noise wall on the East and several infiltration ponds.

“If you’re trying to make a left turn, people can get frustrated and start taking chances. It’s a platoon of cars for an hour or two,” said Wasilla Public Works Director Archie Giddings.

Two projects are currently awaiting completion of design work. From Centaur Ave to Vine Road will be a federally funded project with new signalized intersections, reconstructed separated bike pathway, wider shoulders, turn pockets, lighting at different intersections and drainage improvements. With more turn lanes and traffic lights distributed throughout KGB, McCarthy expects to see safer entry and exit on the road.

“We had to do an environmental assessment of one of the of the highest levels of environmental clearance that the department will have to go through. That’s a pretty comprehensive process. Now we’re in design and they’ll be able to get permission from the Federal Highway Administration to start purchasing right of way land by the end of the federal fiscal year in the fall 2018,” said McCarthy.

The second project is state-funded. Three-fourths of the design work is complete for the project from Vine road to Settler’s Bay. KGB will then return to two lanes past the entrance to Settler’s Bay at Kathlyn Road. The design changes to fit the amended project budget of $20 million are expected to be completed in 2019 with construction set for 2020 and 2021. McCarthy expects the state funded Settler’s to Vine project to move more rapidly. McCarthy also expects the contractors to complete one phase of the project per construction season, as not to have 6.5 miles of road under construction all in one summer.

One piece of the puzzle that has been upgraded ahead of time is the Fairview Loop intersection.

“The state has been good about making improvements with state funds to help congestion and safety. A lot of this started in 2009. It removes some very windy and unsafe sections of road where the light was for Fairview Loop. That’s in a poor location so it’s more safety related,” said Giddings. “ The fern signal that went in and the state saw the benefit of getting that work done. The federal process takes a while so they went ahead and did some work ahead of the four lane project. Correcting Fairview Loop and lining up Clapp was all envisioned as the ideal long term solution.”