Steese construction to close Airport Way
Published Wednesday, May 21, 2008
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Nothing says summer in Alaska like the smell of asphalt and the sounds of heavy equipment fixing Alaska’s infamous highways.
In Fairbanks, a major indicator of the season will hit motorists following Memorial Day weekend.
The Department of Transportation and Public Facilities is scheduled to repave a two-mile stretch of the Steese Expressway, including the Airport Way intersection.
Motorists can expect road closures, detours and the faces of traffic flaggers along the expressway beginning Tuesday and running through about July 23.
“In terms of the impact to city of Fairbanks, this project is the biggest one we’ll see all year,” said Mike Lund, project manager for the Department of Transportation.
The project will be divided into three phases. During each phase, contractors will repave the roadway by removing damaged asphalt, replacing it with new asphalt and then smoothing and painting the roadway.
The first phase of construction is scheduled to take about 12 days and will close only the Airport Way intersection.
As each phase is complete, the newly paved sections of the roadway will be open to motorists.
During the second phase, which is scheduled to begin June 7, a stretch of the Steese from the north side of Airport Way to the south side of College Road will be closed.
The third and final stage will close the Steese from the south side of College Road to the Johansen Expressway. Construction workers will try to keep the College Road intersection closed for the shortest amount of time possible.
“We’re working on this as safely and quickly and efficiently as we can,” Lund said. “We know we’re going to impact business, but we have the intent of minimizing impacts by trying to do this as quickly as possible.”
Though local area streets will remain open, the Department of Transportation encourages motorists to take advantage of the primary detour route by using the Johansen Expressway, Peger Road and the Mitchell Expressway.
Downtown streets also will be open but are prone to heavier congestion.
Motorists are advised to use the highways when possible.
“All detour routes will remain the same, with only small variations around working areas,” Lund said.
“Our intent is to minimize confusion for motorists so from one week to the next people can have an expectation of where to go.”
Commuters can anticipate delays if they drive through the working areas.
Lt. Lonnie Piscoya of the Alaska State Troopers office offered plain advice for motorists: “Just keep your speed down, plan for extra time to get to work, be patient and be safe.”
Drivers are advised to leave for work early and to be aware of any signal changes along the roadway.
Motorists are also asked not to talk on their cell phones in construction zones.
Troopers will have extra traffic enforcement to patrol the construction zones.
“Typically, the public has been pretty good with construction zones,” he said. “But having a presence there seems to keep the speeding down.”
Community Discussion
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Thats really great that the state wants to make our city look nice, but what about the roads that need it(cushman, van horn, 23rd, etc.). Is there really so much money and time to waste that we won't take care of the real problem roads, but we need to take care of the medians and intersections. Ask anyone who drives down cushman street and I'm sure they'll tell you something needs to be done; certain roads in this town are not kept up. And for what reason? I could care less about having to drive around the block to get to work, if I knew it was actually getting something done, and driving to work this winter would have a few less bumps. This vanity project just seems to me, to make no sense and has no real purpose other than spending the taxpayers money so that the powers that be can ask for more, because they spent it all making new intersections where none were needed.
If I am wrong and someone wants to tell me this is more important than making the problems roads less of a problem, then please speak your mind and explain to me why, and what purpose this is serving.
You may want to correct the last sentence in this article to read public and not pubic
Great catch, ogreat1! Thanks
So what is closing, Airport Way or the Steese? Confusing headline.
What about traffic to and from Ft Wainwright? I see no mention made of how this will affect the primary route on and off post. It's gonna be a big mess if everyone has to detour to the back gate. In all probability Badger Road will be almost shut down by traffic jams at the stoplight by the back gate.
They should re-open the Rich HWY gate.
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(This comment was removed by the Newsminer.com staff. Please see our User Agreement for further information.)
Yes, it would have been nice for the article to be a little more thorough and include information as to how to best avoid the construction zones and provide alternate routes - especially regarding Ft. Wainwright.
Ft WW entered into an agreement with DOT not to re-open the Ft Rich Hwy gate because of it's location and the fact that it is extremely dangerous and has had many accidents there in the past. More than likely they will re-route traffic to badger and trainor gates, still messy and long waits. And I agree with the amount of traffic on s cushman, one would think that that road would be done first!
I think they ought to throw in a couple roundabouts while they're at it because they work so well in North Pole....(yes, being sarcastic)
Who needs an amusement park ride when you have S. Cushman?
It seems to me that the DOT has strenuously advertised this upcomming event by running daily updates in the Newsminer starting May 18th where they announce their open house and discuss the intersection closures, Fort Wainright traffic, and project phasing.
While I agree that there are some other roads in Fairbanks that are worse off, I believe that this is a state project. The Steese is a State Highway, and as such, is maintained by ADOT. Cushman, 23rd, etc. are city roads and maintained by the city. Someone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on this.
The work on Van Horn should be starting up within the next 2 weeks or so. It includes repaving the whole thing and adding a light at the Lathrop intersection. As far as South Cushman goes... I have no idea whats going on with that.
To Fishnhunter, I loved your comment this morning, It made me laugh so hard! Thanks for your humor!
Calling out around the town
Are you ready to wait in the heat?
Summer’s here and the time is right
For roadwork in the street!
They’re working out on Sheep Creek
On the Richardson
Don’t for get the Steese Highway
All you need is earmarks
Sweet earmarks
All those earmarks for our state!
They’ll be grading here
And paving there
And Don and Ted think that’s great!
It doesn’t matter what you drive
Just as long as you’re alive
So grab your car
You won’t get far
‘Cause of roadwork in the streets!
(With apologies to Martha and the Vandellas.)
Ft.Wainwright does have maps to let people know which gate to go out/in during the different phases. The Steese gate WILL be open only on the way from NP and only rt turn into FBKS.
I believe that South Cushman St. is the cities responsibility to maintain.
You would think that the State could pass out a little road maintenance money to the local municipalities now that they have $$BILLIONS$$ in surplus.
Good timing DOT. Lets have road construction at the busiest intersection in the height of tourist season!!!
NP roundabouts work great if you know how to drive...
I have an idea---why don't all that is peaved about the road work, drive by flip off and yell at the workers!! That will make it all go away! Since the workers are the ones that arrange for this to take place in the height of the tourist season. (sarcasim-if you didn't catch that!)
In many busy cities, they have a night crew! With the sunset getting later and later, I don't get why they can't work late and avoid the morning and afternoon when its the busiest time. Sure we may have to pay a little more for their wages to take those shifts, but in the long run it saves us time and money (by money I mean gas) I may have to take Nordale to Chena to Steese to Johansen to get to work because of the construction.
We do after all live in the land of the midnight sun!
Night shift, now that's an idea, all the people who have day jobs in the residential area...Just Don't Sleep! After the Steese is closed you can flip the workers off all you want. They wont see your unefective finger.
Great, night work... that way, when they do the work it can be for about 10 hours at night, rather than for 15 hours during the day. Great!
Regardless of working day or night, there is so much traffic on the Steese right now (without construction) that we will all be better off avoiding the whole area.
Confirming that S.Cushman is a city road-so the state doesn't have any control over that road. The state has been pushing the city to fix that road--so talk to your city officials on that one. Van Horn is going to be fixed this summer.
The road crews can't work at night due to city ordinances. There are homes located in that area, so working at night is not an option. There is a section of the road that does not have the ordinance and they will work at night on that section. You know these guys don't do these changes to inconvience you.
Road construction is just something we have to deal with. Luckily I dont work or live near the Steese area so I can avoid it but when the time comes to do work around my area I'll just be glad that my roads will be a little better off for a couple years (if that long). Just give yourself a few extra minutes and take a detour, no big deal. As far as doing the work outside of the tourist season... is that possible? I mean road work in the dead of winter..?
How about putting some of this money to improve the Dalton Hwy.
This federal hwy IS in dire need of improvement. This hwy is our
source of Alaskas economy. The Dalton Hwy violates most Federal
standards of a hwy ( Grades, width, ect. ). With the increase of
tourisum every year and the numerus deaths that have accured due
to substandard funding for improvements, this trend will continue.
I would like to see these desision makers to take a drive to Prudhoe
Bay and see the condition this hwy is in. Bottom line, this money
can go to more needed places. Lets cut the needless spending.
I find it odd that they are taking all this trouble to replace the pavement, when they have proposals on the DOT website that would redesign the Steese-Airport Way intersection. These proposals suggest building one of four different overpasses, and discuss changes to Airport way and the Steese highway. Not to mention possibly increasing the number of lanes on the Steese highway in this area.
Why not just pick one of these designs and build that, instead of having to tear up relatively new pavement her in a couple of years or so? This area of town is getting to be a quite a bit of a bottle-neck for traffic, so it would be good to upgrade now.
Don't waste the money to do things twice, do it once and do it right.
@Arctic_Lynx
Its the same thing with the Steese/3rd st intersection. They've been talking about fixing that one for a while now and as soon as they do they'll have to rip up what they're doing now.
I'm just waiting for them to build another overpass to no-where (johansen)...
I doubt that this construction is needless. Take a look at the ruts in the roadway, and the amount of crack-sealant that has been placed. Also, the road hasn't been re-paved (except for some of the intersections) since it was originally constructed in 1975.
I agree that improvements should be made to the Dalton, but compare the number of users on the Dalton to the number of users on the Steese.
Should we wait until the pavement is destroyed on the Steese before maintenance is performed? I think not.
Don't grumble. Buy a roach coach or a coffee hut, set it up along the construction area and sell refreshments. You can even have hats and Tshirts made up that read I survived the construction zones and sell them. The car wash organizers can even wash cars why they are waiting in line just think you can get about 20-30 cars in an hour.
All of this objection and the powers that be didn't listen at the PUBLIC meeting? Shame on them for not reading your comments that are read by newsminer online readers and staff! Maybe they should've hired Alison Dubois from Medium to read the future newspaper for them! tsk tsk tsk
Well, I'm just glad it ain't the Parks again! (Is it? Maybe spoke too soon!) While they're working on the Steese, they really should fix the part from the Johansen to Hagelbarger. It's full of grooves and cracks and holes on both sides.
They may have projects in the pipeline to widen the Steese or build overpasses, but if they were to widen the Steese, they have all those extremely close neighbors to it. When you look around town, most of the roads have very little right of way, which means the DOT has to go through the process of acquiring (read buying) it from the property owners. And while they may have overpass plans for the intersection at Airport Way, other roads might be in worse condition, as many of the above comments have already pointed out.
The sentece that says Motorists are asked not to talk on thier cell phones in construction zone. I thought it was against the law period to talk while driving aint that how we got in on the federal highway money.
well thank you for clearing some of that up. I didn't know about van horn. I'm glad their at least doing one thing this summer.
I'm not so worried about the time it takes or having to take a detour. its just stupid that roads that really don't need the work are getting the work and the roads that need the work,(johansen to hagelbarger is a great idea, as is the dalton), are getting ignored.
Good news is that they will be working 20+ hours a day to take advantage of the long daylight and the periods when traffic is lightest. That also lets them get the maximum amount of work done in our short season.
Oh wait, that was dream. They will run it like a bank, 8, maybe 10 hours a day. I really like bumping over a rough detour (Parks Highway job comes to mind) on the 4th of July weekend when there isn't even a water truck on site to keep down the dust.
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