Lemon Creek, Valley road projects on track for scheduled finish

A handful of projects in Juneau are on the road to completion.

Sunny days earlier in the summer may have even helped move projects forward, said DOTPF spokesperson Sam Dapcevich.

“Things are going pretty good. We’ve got our Lemon Creek Project — the second year of work is going on,” Dapcevich said. “They’re working on the roundabout that’s going on at the bottom of the Renninger.”

[Kelp is on the way]

The roundabout will ease congestion from Dzantik’i Heeni Middle School, Dapcevich said, particularly for drivers taking a left out of Renninger Street, which can back up hard when school lets out.

“It should really help with the school and traffic there,” Dapcevich said. “This roundabout will keep things moving through there.”

A new traffic signal over at Davis Street will also change the traffic pattern of the area, Dapcevich said.

“The signal over at Davis will be a big safety improvement,” Dapcevich said. “Lemon Creek is scheduled to finish up this year. There’s no crosswalk there and a lot of pedestrian and bicycle traffic comes through there.”

DOTPF is also looking at putting in pedestrian crosswalks with flashing lights, similar to the ones near the Gold Creek crosswalk on Egan Drive downtown, in the Lemon Creek area, Dapcevich said.

“Some of it is data based- traffic history and accident or fatality history,” Dapcevich said. “Other decisions have to do with changing neighborhoods. The last time the roads were redone, there was a lot less going on in certain parts of Lemon Creek.”

Work is expected to put in the finishing touches early next year, Dapcevich said.

Mendenhall Loop Road

DOTPF is also doing work on Mendenhall Loop Road, including major closures over the previous weekend.

“The Mendenhall Loop project that goes from Egan Drive to just short of Stephen Richards, we did a pretty major piece of that over the weekend,” Dapcevich said. “We had to dig up a fish passage culvert that runs between Mall Road and James Boulevard.”

The closures were scheduled to run from Friday night to Monday morning, Dapcevich said, but crews worked quickly and were done by early Sunday.

“I was told our dry weather was good for this culvert replacement since they didn’t have to do a lot of dewatering. That probably helped,” Dapcevich said. “The whole segment from Egan to Stephen Richards is going to be fixed up.”

Crews will resurface the road next, with completion expected before the end of the season.

Roadwork hither and yon

Crews are also busy with smaller projects elsewhere in Juneau, Dapcevich said.

“We have crew all over the region,” Dapcevich said. “In the summer time we don’t have snow so we schedule projects for them to work on.”

DOTPF crews knocked out a sizeable project at the tail end of the road.

“We did a major chip sealing from Adlersheim Wilderness Lodge to the end of the road. I’d guess at least ten miles,” Dapcevich said. “I went out there a few times. It’s a pretty nice smooth new surface. No potholes.”

Fans of jarring bumps on their commute will doubtless be heartbroken to hear the northbound lanes of Egan Drive as they cross Gold Creek will soon be sorted out, without the thrill of the ramps currently in place. An issue between the sealant layer over the concrete and the asphalt caused DOTPF to redo the asphalt there, Dapcevich said, similar to problems that have happened with some bridges elsewhere in Alaska.

“We were hoping to pave it as soon as we get the sealant down, but there was some supply chain issues,” Dapcevich said. “It should be at some point in August we’ll have the permanent fix put down.”

Work on the Douglas Highway is scheduled to resume next year, Dapcevich said. Storm repairs on Thane Road will take place this year as well, Dapcevich said. A repave from South Franklin Street to the Rock Dump will also begin this fall and finish next year, Dapcevich said.

• Contact reporter Michael S. Lockett at (757) 621-1197 or mlockett@juneauempire.com.