Major Glenn Highway project outside Palmer nears final finish date

What you need to know:

• A seven-year highway expansion between the Glenn and Parks Highway interchange and Palmer is set to be fully completed by Sept. 30, bringing four lanes, lighting, a continuous bike path, and improved safety to the corridor.
• Nighttime highway striping will begin this week. Final work includes additional paving, striping, and utility installation, officials said. Work will pause during the Alaska State Fair but may resume on off days.
• The project was conducted in two phases, with the most recent portion beginning in 2023.

PALMER – A major highway project stretching from the Glenn and Parks Highway interchange toward Palmer will be fully completed by late September, construction officials said, marking the end of a seven-year effort to widen the once-narrow corridor.

When finished, the newly divided highway will feature two open lanes in each direction, a continuous bike path and lighting, stretching more than seven miles from the interchange north to the intersection of the Glenn Highway and Arctic Avenue.

All heavy construction is complete, and crews are now focusing on final paving and finishing touches along the roadway, said John Waisanen, a contracted engineer overseeing the project for R&M Consultants.

Overnight highway striping will begin this week in the current work zone between the interchange and Inner Springer Loop, potentially bringing periodic lane closures or traffic shifts, he said. Crews are also working on utilities, including two new intersection signals coordinated with the nearby railroad, he said.

“The heavy lifting is done – the excavation,” he said. “People will see flurries of activity with paving, electrical, topsoil, guardrail and that kind of stuff.”

Project work will pause during open dates at the Alaska State Fair in late August but may continue during the fair’s Tuesday and Wednesday closures, he said.

Dark and narrow with icy winter conditions, the stretch of Glenn Highway currently under construction was the site of regular accidents with serious injuries or fatalities in the years before the project.

Waisanen said driving along the stretch should be much safer going forward, with lighting on both sides every 300 feet.

“All of that is behind us now – we’ll go into the coming winter totally illuminated, with signals and intersections totally illuminated,” he said.

About 12,000 vehicles travel the corridor daily, according to state traffic data.

Contractor Granite Construction is targeting Sept. 30 for full completion of the $40 million project, he said. A recent multiweek pause in visible construction occurred as Granite temporarily focused on other projects while subcontractors worked on utilities, he said.

An initial phase of the project, which concluded in 2019, widened and added lighting and a bike path to a roughly three-mile section of the Glenn Highway from just south of the Alaska State Fairgrounds to near the Palmer-Wasilla Highway intersection in Palmer.

The current phase, which began after the 2023 fair, adds those same improvements from the interchange north to connect with the earlier section.

-- Contact Amy Bushatz at contact@matsusentinel.com