Mat-Su drivers can expect to get a bit more cozy along a 5-mile stretch of the Parks Highway beginning Saturday as state transportation officials close lanes to begin work on a project meant to alleviate pothole problems in the area.
The Parks' two northbound lanes will be closed between Trunk Road and the Seward Meridian Parkway until mid-May, Shannon McCarthy, a spokeswoman for the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, said Thursday. Instead, one of the two southbound lanes will carry northbound traffic, trimming the four-lane road to just two.
"It will be a three-week lane shift," McCarthy said. "Both the north and the south (traffic) will share the southbound lanes."
On one mid-September morning last year, heavy rains left a pothole deep enough to disable several vehicles near the Parks' interchange with the Glenn Highway. Tow trucks responded to the scene, and a number of potholes were temporarily patched -- but DOT officials promised that the project's more extensive upgrades to the highway would make longer-term fixes.
McCarthy said the $13 million project will also replace a waterproof membrane beneath the roadway and install seismic upgrades on bridges along the highway. All of the pavement in last year's potholed area, which sees an average of 29,000 vehicles per day, is slated to be replaced.
"We had just started this project right after the potholing occurred," McCarthy said. "We're just grinding the whole thing up, repaving and filling in any holes."
Road crews will continue to work on sections of the highway within the 5-mile construction zone from Mile 35 to Mile 40 until this fall, in stints lasting from three to six weeks. The work shouldn't bar access to local businesses or the Mat-Su Regional Medical Center, however.
"It'll be in active construction through the summer," McCarthy said. "The business access is open; the hospital is open."