About 60 Kenai Peninsula residents attended the open house for the Sterling Highway Safety Corridor Project which aims to create a safer four lane divided roadway from Soldotna to Sterling with construction beginning in 2021.
Project Manager Kelly Peterson says the Thursday night meeting was to show the public the initial design of the project and to also notify locals that the state funded portion of the project is over.
Peterson: “So this is the closing of a state funded project that was studying the area and the results of that state funded project are on our website and it’s a preliminary engineering report and a preliminary decision document.”
She says if federal funding is granted, the next steps for the project will be environmental data collection.
Pat and Myrna Cowan, owners of Birch Ridge Golf Course on the outskirts of Soldotna, had some comments on the initial proposed plan which shows four lanes divided by a median in front of their business.
Cowan: “We’re in the city of Soldotna and of course we’d just like them to go ahead and extend the 5-lane all the way out to Boundary St, which is through the city. That would be the best option for us. That would give us access and egress without having to go all the way down to a different street, turn around, come back, go over to Boundary St, turn left, etc. That would be our best option.”
The initial proposed design shows turn pockets every half mile once the medians begin but project team members say suggestions by the public will be considered.