DOT outlines Parks Highway rechannelization plan; council warns about impacts on business access

Chris Bence of the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities briefed the council on the Wasilla Parks Highway rechannelization project, saying the effort grew from council concerns about congestion and crash clusters at the Palmer–Wasilla Highway intersection.

"The real blunt straightforward response is to improve safety," Bence said while describing crash data from 2018–2022 that showed a concentration of angle collisions at the intersection. He said the project scope includes median construction to limit left turns, extending right/left turn pockets as appropriate, and potentially installing dedicated left‑turn lanes where the traffic analysis supports them.

Bence told the council the project has "roughly 3 — just short of $3,500,000" in state funding for design and construction and emphasized the funding limits will shape the final scope. He said the project team will hire a contractor, collect turning‑movement counts in the summer, and run a limited traffic analysis to confirm whether dedicated left‑turn pockets are prudent and where partial versus full median openings should be used.

Council reaction split around two priorities: safety and preserving access to businesses. Councilmember Crafton and Councilmember Johnson supported targeted channeling and tactical fixes to reduce queuing, noting some local cutouts could be altered to improve left‑turn access. Councilmember Graham warned that a continuous median could "cut off access to these businesses" and urged more public outreach and specific data before locking in median locations.

DOT acknowledged the changes will alter local traffic patterns and said the analysis will evaluate redistributed traffic and whether frontage roads or U‑turns will become primary access methods.

What's next: DOT will negotiate a design contract, perform turning‑movement counts and traffic analysis this summer, confirm budget sufficiency during design estimation, and either request additional state funding or reduce project scope to fit the $3.5 million allocation. The council urged outreach to businesses along the corridor before finalizing designs.