Detours ahead as road closures begin near Wasilla
Sections of Settlers Bay Drive and Fern Street will close this week as part of major road repair projects.
What you need to know:
- A portion of Settlers Bay Drive will close Tuesday through Aug. 4, and part of Fern Street will close Thursday through July 27 for road repairs, drainage improvements and a culvert replacement. Detours will be in place for motorists.
- At least 3,500 vehicles travel the affected sections of Settlers Bay Drive and Fern Street each day. Officials say full closures are necessary because of the scope of the work.
- Mat-Su voters approved the projects through transportation bonds in 2021 and 2024.
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WASILLA – Thousands of residents will need to reroute their daily drives during a pair of weeks-long road closures as crews complete major repairs off Knik-Goose Bay Road in and near Wasilla.
Settlers Bay Drive will be closed from Tuesday through Aug. 4 from just south of Knik-Goose Bay Road to near South Calista Drive for deep road repairs and drainage improvements, according to a Mat-Su Borough map. Traffic entering and leaving the area will be detoured 1.5 miles down Knik-Goose Bay Road to Bogle Bluff Drive, borough officials said.
Fern Street will be closed Thursday through July 27 from Hardrock Circle, near Knik-Goose Bay Road, to just south of Mint Lane while crews replace a culvert and improve fish passage ont Cottonwood Creek, which runs beneath the roadway. Traffic will be detoured via Weeping Birch Street and Edlund Road, officials said.
At least 3,500 vehicles travel the sections of Fern Street and Settlers Bay Drive daily, according to borough traffic counts.
Mat-Su voters approved the road projects as part of transportation bond packages, said Cole Branham, a borough road project manager. Voters approved the Fern Street project in 2021 and the Settlers Bay Drive project in 2024.
The nearly three-week closure of Settlers Bay Drive is necessary because the road's grade and the scope of the work make it difficult to maintain traffic through the construction zone, Branham said.
The project is expected to cost about $1.75 million and stretches beyond the closed portion to Turner Drive. The thoroughfare provides access to hundreds of homes, the private Settlers Bay Golf Course, and the borough-managed Settlers Bay Coastal Park.
Work on Fern Street in Wasilla is the first phase of a series of projects to repair the deeply rutted and worn roadway. Culvert replacement requires a full road closure while crews work above and around the creek.
Ownership of the roughly 1.5-mile road is shared by the city of Wasilla and the state. The borough is conducting the project at the city's request and will complete it in two phases.
The first phase covers about 0.35 miles and includes the culvert replacement, pavement restoration, and construction of a bike path extending just past Mint Lane. A second phase will restore pavement to Edlund Drive and extend the bike path south to Fairview Loop. The pavement between Edlund Drive and Fairview Loop does not need repairs because state crews recently resurfaced it, Branham said.
The Fern Street project is expected to cost about $9.6 million, Branham said.
-- Contact Amy Bushatz at contact@matsusentinel.com