The Department of Natural Resources has chosen a concept design for improvements to the north side of the Kasilof River, where a majority of activity for the personal use fishery on that river takes place.
Southcentral Regional Land Manager Adam Smith with DNR says the chosen concept, which is a combination of site concept one and three, will be released to the public within the next week.
Smith: “What we’ve settled on is keeping the lower parking lot out of what we were referencing as US Survey 83 and making sure that area is going to be minimally developed, so there is basically just going to be a turnaround at the end of the road with two spots for emergency services vehicles to base out of. The majority of the parking area is going to be in the northwest part of the plan area.”
He says that large lot will accommodate approximately 132 parking spots, a significant decrease of the previous proposal.
While the road, turnaround, and beach access will remain a gravel surface, the parking lot will be paved along with a handicap accessible pedestrian path to the mouth of the river.
The approved concept will also include approximately 3,000 linear square feet of fencing around the higher sandy beach sections to discourage people from walking and driving on the dunes.
Smith: “We are going to have guardrail installed along the road, especially in the lower part of the road closer to the route, within the U.S. 83 parking area. We’re going to be limiting vehicles from driving out into the wetlands. The goal is to keep people from parking on the shoulders of the road, we want to keep access open to emergency vehicles. The road will be 30 feet wide so it should accomodate two directions of traffic.”
