Wildwood Drive, a 50-plus-year-old roadway considered by many as the worst road in Kenai, was identified as “in failed condition” in the City’s 2009 Roadway Improvement Survey conducted by Nelson Engineering; the city street has continued to further degrade.
The total road project cost is estimated at $929,000 and state funding support is necessary to complete the project in 2023.
The Kenai City Council has approved the request for funding in the amount of $600,000, in addition to the $329,000 in City funding already secured through the passage of Resolution 2021-26, to support this project.
Scott Curtain, Kenai Public Works Director explains the status of Wildwood Drive;
“This is the Wildwood Drive Rehab Project, so this is from the Kenai Spur Highway, down to near the entrance of the Correctional Facility. It’s about 2,300 lineal feet, roughly as far as distance when we started the project. We did some geotechnical investigations soil borings and they kind of confirmed our our worst fears, that road was really not constructed on much of a gravel base. And the result of that is with the design for rehab or having to go in there and essentially excavate out three feet-ish of the bad material and come back up with new gravel for the majority of the distance of 2,300 feet so that is what’s driving the additional costs.”
The project consists of approximately 2,300 linear feet of roadway from the Kenai Spur Highway to the entrance of the Wildwood Correctional Complex, a State of Alaska Department of Corrections institution.
Wildwood Drive is primarily utilized by State employees and is critical to public safety agencies on the Kenai Peninsula.
The Wildwood Drive Rehabilitation Project is planned for construction in the summer of 2023.