Glenn Highway bridge to reopen after 96-day closure

What you need to know:

• The northbound Peters Creek bridge on the Glenn Highway is scheduled to reopen Friday night after a 96-day closure, ending a months-long traffic detour and completing the final major phase of a $22 million bridge rehabilitation project.
• Construction lasted more than a month longer than planned after crews discovered extensive damage to the bridge deck, requiring a full deck replacement instead of the originally planned overlay repairs.
• Drivers can expect brief lane closures as crews remove detour infrastructure and complete project cleanup.
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PETERS CREEK — A Glenn Highway bridge span near Peters Creek will reopen Friday night, ending a months-long detour that routed all traffic onto a series of narrow lanes on one side of the highway, state transportation officials said.

The northbound span of the Peters Creek bridge is scheduled to reopen after a 96-day closure during which crews stripped the decades-old structure to its base, added new rebar, poured new concrete and applied a smooth overlay.

The reopening marks the final major milestone in the multiyear, $22 million bridge rehabilitation project, which also included major repairs and months-long detours on the Knik River bridge spans in Mat-Su.

There are no plans for major construction on the southbound span of the Peters Creek bridge, said Jason Lamoreaux, an Alaska Department of Transportation construction manager overseeing the project.

Crews will now move into project cleanup, Lamoreaux said. That work includes removing the crossover lanes used during the detour and taking away the barrier blocks that controlled traffic through the work zone. Drivers will encounter brief lane closures during that final phase, he said.

Unlike the Knik River bridge, where an expansion joint creates a noticeable bump as drivers enter the span, the Peters Creek bridge uses a different type of transition that will not cause the same jolt, he said.

The project lasted more than a month longer than originally planned after crews found extensive damage to the bridge deck. The discovery prompted the project to shift from repairing and replacing the overlay to replacing the bridge deck, he said.

Lamoreaux said he is grateful for the way the public navigated the construction zone and responded to the delays. With the exception of a few minor crashes involving aggressive drivers approaching the bridge and a wide-load boat that became temporarily wedged in the narrow detour lane while traveling without a required oversize permit, there were no major problems during the detour, he said.

"Overall, it was a fairly good response from the public, and we're happy that people responded well to it," he said.

Future major work on the Glenn Highway between Anchorage and the Mat-Su Borough includes a yearslong, 33-mile reconstruction project that could begin near Anchorage next year and a Hiland Road interchange project in Eagle River that does not yet have a firm timeline.

About 34,000 vehicles travel the Glenn Highway between the Matanuska-Susitna Borough and Anchorage each day, according to state traffic data.

-- Contact Amy Bushatz at contact@matsusentinel.com