Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Charlie Pierce told KSRM on Monday that there could be more efficient methods of taking care of problematic roadways on the Kenai, especially in situations as the area has seen recently, with weather events causing more ice and snow than is typically present.
At the urging of Senator Peter Micciche, Governor Mike Dunleavy reopened the Silvertip Maintenance Station for the remainder of the 2020/2021 snow season, as reported on December 18. The station has serviced the Seward and Sterling Highways until the Department of Transportation announced its closure in September 2019.
Micciche has told his constituents that he’s been visiting with the Department of Transportation reminding them of the difficult conditions on the highway, but they are attempting to fill the Silvertip positions and update the equipment necessary for adequate service.
Mayor Pierce said that the borough is already formulating ideas that could lead to cost-effective and efficient methods of road-clearing locally: “We do contract to private contractors to handle all of the plowing and the sanding and the road maintenance, but the state has never done that. The state’s always had their own little DoT department. DOT is just a big, big, big dollar cost. They’re gonna get out there today, they’ve got these scarf blade on now because of all of the icing for all of the contractors. “
He added: “We’re really trying to modify the contracts today [in the Kenai Peninsula Borough]. We used to build everything with a grader involved in it. You had to have a grader. Today, we’re saying ‘Maybe, you have one grader – you don’t have six, and during these snow events, you go, you run out there with a plow truck – one ton or something with a blade on it – where you can actually buy these blades that are going in all different directions and direct the snow and plow it, and do a more efficient job, faster. It should bring the borough lower costs over the long haul. That’s what we’re looking into today.”