Work continues on erosion of Glenn Highway near Sutton

Road crews began dropping riprap ahead of the July 4 holiday to milepost 63 of the Glenn Highway, which has been undergoing emergency repairs to erosion from the Matanuska River, which began undercutting the roadway over the weekend, forcing closures and traffic diversions. Both lanes of the highway remain open to the King River bridge construction.

Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (DOT&PF), crews have been making progress since the June 29 weekend, after erosion from the Matanuska River undercut a section of the highway.

In an online post, the DOT&PF says that further stabilization work is taking place with crews working long hours, sometimes reducing traffic to one-lane to give equipment room to work. Crews are currently widening the embankment and will be finishing it with riprap to prevent further erosion.

DOT&PF says that they have limited authority to work outside of the state's right of way, which precludes many suggestions made to intervene in the river itself. Preventative action is planned for later this month to address erosion along the river.

Fifty feet of embankment was lost, with the final 10 feet disappeared in just three hours late Saturday afternoon.

“It shows you the power of water,” said Jerry Hess, who drove his ATV along the roadway, taking videos that show the progression of the erosion.

Residents have voiced frustration that it took so long to see any action divert the Matanuska River away, or even set up barriers before the waters reached the highway and that perhaps this could have been prevented.

“It is very sad they took so long, and then had to spend so much more money to fix it which they are still doing because they didn’t use large boulders,” said Melody Houser, who said she had reached out to DOT last week, days before the river had reached the highway.

She also voiced concern for an elderly, disabled neighbor who is the only resident on the riverside left on the mile stretch of highway. And while the neighbor has family and neighbors across the street that check on her every day, Houser says she has a ‘go-bag’ ready and at last check, currently she has a bit of a treeline that is holding for now.

People driving through the area will be flagged through while work continues. DOT&PF says that future work to the damaged area includes building a shoe-fly ramp and establishing a new traffic pattern that will allow vehicles to continue to pass through safely.

The DOT&PF will continue updating as information becomes available. This is a developing story.