Major construction delays are expected on the Seward Highway of up to 90 minutes from the 20 Mile River bridge to the Placer River Overflow bridge between mile points 75 to 90, which will severely impact travel from the Kenai Peninsula to Anchorage. The delays are expected to last through 5:00 a.m. Friday, June 25. No work or traffic delays will occur between 5:00 a.m. Friday morning and 10:00 p.m. Sunday night. Work will take place 24 hours a day between 10:00 p.m. Sunday nights and 5:00 a.m. Friday mornings.
Shannon McCarthy, Media Liaison and Admin Operations Manager for the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities:
“We ground up the areas that were severely damaged. I know that most of your listeners had to drive on those over the winter. Those were ground up. We did that work at night and then we are repaving during the day just because the warmer temperatures are what we need to make sure that there’s a good product there, but because this is a two lane highway and there are no alternatives for detours, we are having to hold traffic and, unfortunately the traffic is heavy enough during the week that we get very long queues that we’re not able to clear the traffic all at once. We are telling people that they could vary from anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour and a half delay. We’re working as fast as we can. The good news is that we will be done with this work on June 30th. While very inconvenient, this is the short term solution and then they will be able to drive on the improved roadway and improved bridge surfaces for the rest of summer.”
The Alaska Department of Transportation is working to replace the bridges at 20 Mile River, Portage Creek #1, Portage Creek #2, Placer River and Placer River Overflow, as well as realign sections of the roadway within the Portage Curve to improve safety.
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