The stretch of Glacier Highway just south of the Auke Bay roundabout has changed dramatically in the past four months, and this is only the first phase of a larger project.
Starting in April, SECON Southeast Alaska began work on an Alaska Department of Transportation project that is more than 12 years in the making — widening the stretch of Glacier Highway near Fritz Cove Road, adding sidewalks on both sides and making the steep curve in the road a little less extreme.
“I would say this project addresses a lot of issues out there,” Project Manager Garrett Paul said, referring mostly to the dangerous curve in the road and the slope of the road itself.
A large retaining wall has sprung up on the east side of the road, and construction cones have dotted the path for the summer. The retaining wall is to ensure that the hillside stays in place, as the widening of the road and addition of sidewalks has pushed the boundaries of the road into a steep hillside.
Access to the Chapel by the Lake has also been closed from one side to work on the intersection leading from Glacier Highway to the chapel. There have been occasional traffic backups, but for the most part two lanes of traffic have remained open.
This phase is nearing completion, as Project Engineer Tina Bergam estimated that construction crews will definitely be out of there by Thanksgiving, but likely well before then in October.
The project has been in the works for 12 years, Paul said, as the DOT identified it as a priority in the early 2000s. Both Paul and DOT Public Information Officer Aurah Landau acknowledged that they hear public comments about the intersection near Fred Meyer being dangerous as well. Landau said the DOT is looking into options with that intersection, which is one of the more visible intersections in town.
For now, however, the focus is Auke Bay. Construction on this portion will be done soon, but next summer the construction continues north of the roundabout. DOT will be repaving the stretch of road from the roundabout to Seaview Avenue, also widening the shoulders and providing new sidewalks and bike paths. The full project will cost $13.8 million, Paul said.
As they stood in the shadow of the large retaining wall on the current stretch of construction, Bergam and Paul marveled at how much has changed. There’s still plenty of work to do, though.
“This is phase one,” Paul said. “That other stint is phase two.”
“We’ll be here next year,” Bergam said.
Affecting the area
Life has continued more or less as normal around the construction. Jessica Schiltz, an employee at Dehart’s Auke Bay Store located in the construction zone, said the store hasn’t lost much business if any. While talking Wednesday morning, she also said the SECON employees have been pleasant and polite, gesturing to the parking lot where three SECON trucks sat.
Nearby, a house directly in the construction zone sits with a “For Sale” sign in front. The sign went up fairly recently, but the owner of the house, Richard Haight, said it has nothing to do with the construction. In fact, he and his wife Gladys Reckley moved across the street to the Cannery Cove Condominiums.
Haight said Wednesday that he and his wife are just looking to downsize. Though he said DOT could have done a better job of communicating with nearby residents, the construction hasn’t been very inconvenient.
“To me they’re doing a pretty good job of letting traffic get through,” Haight said. “I think last week there were a couple times where you had to sit and wait for a while. These past two days they’ve done a good job of letting traffic through.”
The University of Alaska Southeast owns a number of properties in the area as well. The UAS Facilities building rests on the hill above the new retaining wall. Sitting in that building Wednesday morning, Facilities Services Director Nathan Leigh spoke on the phone about how the project has affected and will continue to affect the University.
As of now, traffic that would normally go directly to Chapel by the Lake is going through the UAS parking lot. It isn’t a huge deal at the moment, Leigh said, but with school just three weeks away he hopes the project wraps up soon.
There also will no longer be access to the Facilities building from Glacier Highway, which Leigh said could actually be good from a security standpoint.
“The con is that it’s gonna take us a little longer to get to work some days because we have to go all the way around, but it’s less than five minutes,” Leigh said. “The pro is that it gives better control for who’s coming on campus and who’s not coming on campus if we just have the one access.”
Leigh has been with the University for three years, but before that worked for an engineering firm and actually saw the initial plans for the highway more than a decade ago. He said that DOT has held numerous public meetings and has kept the University in the loop for the whole time.
He acknowledged that some people might be surprised by the extent of this project, but it’s no surprise to those who have followed along closely.
“That’s the way it is with most communities,” Leigh said. “Even though you have a lot of planning meetings and a lot of community meetings and a lot of notices in the newspaper, sometimes people don’t realize it until they see the road torn up and they see the construction going on.”
Those looking to follow along can do so at the project’s Facebook page, entitled “SECON Glacier Highway Reconstruction-Fritz Cove Rd. to Seaview Ave.” There are also diagrams in the windows of the project office at 11798 Glacier Highway.
• Contact reporter Alex McCarthy at alex.mccarthy@juneauempire.com.
