• The contractor should have all paving and traffic markings completed by Monday 10/05. Only one standard sign remains to be installed and the temporary traffic control devices are being removed.
  

• A small amount of the multiple use trail remains to be surfaced and work continues on the Nordale Road electrical installation.
  

• Contractor activity should be at a minimum by the end of this week. Some slope preparation and seeding work will be completed next spring.
  

• The completed light installations have been activated. The lights at Nordale Road are still being worked on, and the lights that will be installed under the Steese overpass bridge have not yet arrived from the manufacturer. They will be installed when they arrive, but that might not be until late November.
  

• The work remaining on the multiple use trail includes about one mile of surface material to be laid.
  

• State maintenance will not be responsible for Chena Hot Springs Road until the project has been accepted. If any work remains to be completed next Spring, for instance seeding, it may be possible for the State to do a partial acceptance. In that case the State maintenance crew will be responsible for road work, including snow removal and any needed patching this winter.
  

• As of Saturday 09/19, the majority of the mainline has been paved. The contractor will spend next week paving the gores and the road widenings near Nordale Road. The work should begin on paving approaches after those items have been completed.

• n other work; the haul will continue to the multiple use trail and the electricians will be installing electrical loops.

• There is at this time no sign installation planned and permanent pavement markings will not be done the week of September 21-26.
  

When the report below talks about “approaches”, they mean the road and driveways that access off of the main road. It has been almost comical watching the big belly dumps head off to drop loads on the multi-use trail. I saw some dozers having to push and pull them through a couple of dicey sections. Still it seems like some work will be on-going into October.

• Paving is now planned for Thursday 09/17, and they expect the mainline to
  be done in 3 to 5 days. Wednesday, they will be tight blading the grade and
  a decision will be made at that time about application of prime under the
  asphalt. The contractor will then fall back and complete the approaches.
  

• The electricians will be installing 2 light poles today down near Bridge
  Street. The flashing light near the intersection of the Old Steese and CHSR
  will be removed and a light pole installed near that location. There is
  another light pole scheduled to be installed near the expressway within
  the next week.
  

• At this point, the main effort will be in grade preparation for paving. The contractor is estimating the paving operation will begin Wednesday 09/16. If things go as planned, the mainline paving will be completed in about 3 days. It will take an additional 4 to 5 days for the crew to go back and pave the approaches. The other work planned this week includes continued electrical installation and laying surface course on the multiple use trail.
  

• Rumour yesterday was they would start paving the main road on Thurs. Sept. 10, lasting about 4 days. Now I hear it has been postponed until Tues. Sept. 15. Oh well.

• The job will be off from Sat.- Mon. for the Labor Day weekend.
  

To reduce the size of the webpage and increase loading speed, “Old News” has been moved to:

• http://www.mosquitonet.com/~gcn/chsrnews.htm
  

• Final 1997 CHSR Upgrade Homepage

I asked of Ron Tanner, DOT/PF Design Engineer, ron_tanner@dot.state.ak.us:



• Looking at the lines painted last fall at the Steese Exressway/CHSR intersection, it seems as if there is a more efficient way to handle traffic, particularly heading west. If it was not a merge left just east of Rainbow, but left lane for left turn onto the Steese Expwy heading south, and right lane going straight or right north onto the Steese Expwy N., it might work better. Signage for left and straight could be posted on the bridge for those driving East on CHSR.
  




And Colleen Ackiss, DOT/PF Traffic Engineer, colleen_ackiss@dot.state.ak.us responded:




• Thank you for expressing your concern regarding the intersection at CHSR and Steese Expressway. As you noted the two west bound lanes of CHSR traffic must merge into one lane prior to the interchange and then are divided into two lanes – a left (to the Steese Expressway) and a through (to Old Steese). The reason why the two lanes were not carried through this area and the inside lane changed midway to a left turn lane was for safety.
  

  
  There are inherent problems on higher speed rural roadways when a through lane abruptly changes into a turn lane. There would also be a high potential for a vehicle to mistakenly turn up the Steese Expressway off ramp on the east side of the bridge if an extended left turn lane existed. For driver safety, the left turn lane was designed and constructed such that the beginning is to the west of the off ramp thereby eliminating the potential of wrong way entry onto the ramp and subsequent head-on accidents.
  

• You can complain to the flaggers, but they can only pass comments on.
  Be nice to them. Their basic concern is handling traffic outside on all sorts
  of good or bad weather. Envy them their sun-tans, but not the dust-burns and no on-site showers (:o)

  
  

• Road Width


• Access changes


• Left and Right Turns
• Illumination
• Trail Details
• Electrical and Telephone Relocation


• To Official DOT/PF Page
• To Main Unofficial Page

• The four lane part of the road is to be two 12′ lanes on either side, with an 8′ paved shoulder and a 4′ tapered gravel shoulder on either side.
• The two lane part of the road is to be one 12′ lane on either side, with an 8′ paved shoulder and a 4′ tapered gravel shoulder on either side.

• Access to and from the Steese Expressway will be at a slightly different angle to hopefully improve merging. An island will be placed at the north off-ramp from the Steese Expressway onto Chena Hot Springs Road to divert traffic left and right.
• Old Chena Hot Springs Road access adjacent to the Steese Expressway off-ramp will be blocked, following removal of the recently constructed detour. In its place, “Bridge Street” will be connected between the New and Old Chena Hot Springs Road at the first curve. You can see the cleared area cut in the hill.
• Bias Drive will be diverted to connect to the Old Chena Hot Springs Road access just before Weller Hill.
• I think it unfortunate that DOT/PF was not able to merge the Hillcrest and Golden Birch roads to have only one access onto Chena Hot Springs Road.
• Wigwam is being rerouted the same as Bias Drive onto an extension of Old Chena Hot Springs Road.
• As mentioned elsewhere, Elementary Drive is being reconstructed to accomodate a grade change.
• Gettinger’s hayfield access roads on either side are moved slightly west from the existing access.
• Several driveways between Wayne Williams Lane and Love Road are re-routed to access onto Yoder Drive instead of Chena Hot Springs Road.
• Haida Lane and Eberhart Road are re-aligned where they connect to Chena Hot Springs Road due to grade changes.
• The driveway across from Rex Lane is being re-aligned where it connects to Chena Hot Springs Road due to grade changes.
• Several driveways between Herning Road and the top of the hill heading toward Nordale Road are also being re-aligned where they connect to Chena Hot Springs Road due to grade changes.

• Under the Steese Expressway bridge, both east and west bound
• Rainbow Drive into Rainbow Valley Trailer Court westbound
• Bridge Street westbound
• Kasekek Road eastbound
• Old Chena Hot Springs Road westbound
• Elementary Drive eastbound
• Steele Creek Road eastbound
• Juniper Drive eastbound
• Love Road westbound
• Esro Road eastbound
• Herning Road westbound
• Amanita Drive eastbound
• Up the hill westbound from Nordale toward Amanita has a passing lane
• Nordale Road westbound
• Nordale Road eastbound approach becomes a non-passing two lane road
  

• Old Steese Highway, then along Chena Hot Springs Road relatively continuous until Bridge Street
• Kasekek Road eastbound
• Old Chena Hot Springs Road westbound
• Weller hill on either side of Elementary Drive
• The intersection of the multi-purpose path/trail with Elementary Drive
• Bennett Road – 2 light poles on either side of the road
• Steele Creek Road, Juniper Drive until the road becomes two lane has 10 light poles. I guess it will be well illuminated.
• Esro Road – 2 light poles on either side of the road
• Herning Road, Amanita Drive until the start of the passing lane mentioned above is continuously illuminated.
• Nordale Road from the start of the non-passing two lane to just east of Nordale Road
  

Many thought it would be nice for recreational bike users to have a paved path, but this was not to be, probably due to maintenance expense AND construction cost. Instead, it is to be constructed of 12″ of type D material and a 4″ surface course of crushed aggregate (gravel).

There was also substantive discussion on which side to locate the trail/path on. For reasons of right-of-way (near as I can surmise), most of the trail/path is on the south side of Chena Hot Springs Road, crossing Chena Hot Springs Road at Bennett Road until it stops at Curry’s Corner. This links it up with the trail/path at Nordale Road, but creates what is, in the mind of many, a dangerous crossing at Bennett Road. We’ll see how many injuries or deaths occur before the designers and DOT/PF will consider better solutions. Of all the design decisions made, this one is the most disturbing to me. There were ideas from the public that were discarded, including running a culvert/underpass under the road, admittedly a tough job, considering the size of the culvert required for horses and in the poor ground.

By and large, the trail/path is separated from the Chena Hot Springs Road and is 10′ in width. In some cases (a total of 3040′ along the entire project), a 6′ chain link fence separates the trail/path from Chena Hot Springs Road.

The trail/path does not currently extend to Weller School. As mentioned elsewhere, there are discussions underway between DOT/PF and Exclusive Landscaping as to how and if to accomplish this. The Weller School administration and PTA has been urging this logical connection.

I hope you find this site useful. gary(at)chena.org –