Work starts this summer on long-planned Knik-Goose Bay Road reconstruction

Travelers living and working along the Knik-Goose Bay Road, or KGB road, will see safety and capacity improvements start later this summer. The long-awaited reconstruction project was awarded by the Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities to Granite Construction for $54.5 million.

“Rebuilding KGB Road has been a priority for me as governor, and as a resident of the Mat-Su Valley from the day I came into office,” said Gov. Mike Dunleavy. “The new road will be safer with less congestion for the families living and working all along this corridor.”

Granite Construction will start mobilizing equipment in the next two months to begin construction on Phase One of the project. The work will reconstruct approximately 6.5 miles of the road from Centaur Avenue to Vine Road. work will reconstruct approximately 4 miles of the road from Centaur Avenue to Fairview Loop and will include expanding the corridor to a four-lane divided roadway from Centaur Avenue to Vine Road with four-foot inside shoulders and eight-foot outside shoulders, and a separated multi-use pathway on the north side. In order to improve safety and reduce congestion, there will be breaks in the median between every half mile to mile. Transition areas will be constructed north of Centaur Avenue and south of Vine Road to match the existing roadway.

The purpose of this project is to increase capacity and improve safety. The corridor currently experiences significant congestion and high collision rates, particularly during peak hours, due to limited capacity and a high density of driveway access. Congestion issues are only expected to increase, spurred by development along KGB Road, future land development in the Point MacKenzie area, and large anticipated population growth in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley. This project will add capacity and correct problems created by rapid growth. It will be constructed to accommodate both current needs and future capacity increases.

KGB Road is a rural two-lane road extending approximately 20 miles from the Parks Highway in Wasilla to the Goose Bay Airport in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough (MSB). KGB was constructed on its current alignment in 1966. It was designated by the State of Alaska as a Traffic Safety Corridor in 2009 due to elevated rates of fatal and major injury crashes. Average daily traffic (AADT) volumes are over 19,000 vehicles per day near the intersection with Palmer Wasilla Highway.

Due to unique hazards that exist during construction, the department encourages travelers to continue exercising a high level of vigilance when traveling the corridor.

The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities oversees 237 airports, 9 ferries serving 33 communities, over 5,600 miles of highway and 839 public facilities throughout the state of Alaska.