The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities is reporting that there will be a planned road closure on the Seward Highway in both directions from mile marker 110 to 112 on Tuesday March 23rd at 11:00 p.m. till Wednesday, March 24th at 3:00 a.m.
Shannon McCarthy, Government and Public Affairs for the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities spoke with KSRM, “As you know, we’re doing some rockfall mitigation work between the Potter weigh station and the Bird Indian area. At mile post 111.5, which is just south of the McHugh Creek Day Park area, we have a knob of rock that basically is at the end of the bottom part of a chute. What’s been happening over the years is as rock falls down, the knob of rock has been making a ramp so the material comes down and that it launches itself right into the road. What we’re doing is we’re removing all the slide material and then once we have all the slide material out of there, which we’re getting real close to getting done with that, then we’ll blat that knob of rock so that we don’t have a ramp anymore and that we have a little storage so that if material comes down from that slide, it just deposits safely off the road. The actual work is at 111.5, but we’ll stop traffic far enough away because, firstly when doing blasting, you don’t that to rock in the car. So we’ll stop it right around Beluga Point and right before you get to that big corner before you get to McHugh. We’ll stop people right before that corner.”
During the planned road closure, there will also be expected lane closures with flagging operations through the week at mile point 111.5 where crews will be performing blasting operations. During that time, be aware of a reduced speed limit of 45 miles per hour and plan your trip accordingly.
The Alaska Department of Transportation is working in cooperation with Hi-Tech Rockfall Construction to perform stabilization work to mitigate rockfall sites along the Seward Highway between Anchorage and Girdwood. The multi-year project will address the highest potential rockfall areas between Anchorage and Girdwood. The project is expected to be completed in July 2023.