Matanuska River erosion near Sutton spurs emergency repairs along Glenn Highway

PALMER — State transportation officials say they’re planning emergency repairs next week for an erosion-threatened section of the Glenn Highway near Sutton and are monitoring two other sites closely.

Nearby residents say the river, swollen with summer snowmelt, consumed about 40 feet in a month, with more lost in recent days.

“It’s moving very quickly,” said Chris Rose, who lives in the area and described a few driveways that once led to abandoned homes now leading directly into the river.

The Matanuska River is “a stone’s throw” from the highway at Mile 76 near King Mountain and prompting close attention at two other spots about 12 miles closer to Sutton, according to Justin Shelby, regional administrative operations manager for the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities.

The agency is using expedited emergency repair funding to protect the highway at Mile 76 using large stones known as riprap by the middle of next week, Shelby said. He couldn’t provide funding details but estimated the cost in the “tens of thousands.”

The other sites will probably also end up protected by riprap but using the transportation department’s conventional contracting and design process because the erosion is less imminent, he said.

The Matanuska, an unpredictable glacier river that drains a 2,100-square-mile basin in the Chugach and Talkeetna mountains, has consumed riverfront property from Sutton to Butte, occasionally swallowing entire homes or outbuildings. Buyouts and home relocations have occurred for decades as government agencies try to move people away from the river.

A series of sunny, warm days by Friday had raised river levels and flow, according to a National Weather Service gauge at the Old Glenn Highway near Palmer.

Yellow caution tape warned of high water along one section of the highway. But, Shelby said, the Glenn itself is not in imminent danger.

“The highway is not likely to be impacted anytime soon,” he said Friday afternoon.