In 1999 the Alaska Department
of Transportation and Public Facilities (ADOT&PF)
began a project to increase the capacity of
the Glenn Highway in the area where it enters
downtown Anchorage, as it has long been known
as a traffic bottleneck. Progress had been
made in background and environmental studies
when, in 2002, a State law was passed increasing
the time horizon for major road projects from
20 years to 25 years following completion of
construction. This meant that with environmental
and design phases figured into the time line,
engineers must design the road for the 2035
traffic forecast. It follows that the problems
to be solved would need a much different and
more far-reaching solution.
In the meantime, cars,
buses, and trucks are backed up every day going
in and out of the north end of the city, and
the ADOT&PF and the
Municipality of Anchorage (MOA) realized the
need to bring at least partial relief to this
bottleneck as soon as possible. Therefore, the
Municipality and the State have agreed to a reconstruction
of a portion of the corridor, 5 th Avenue, to
add more lanes to the road in that area while
the full Glenn Highway design is developed for
the forecast year 2035.
The 5th Avenue project
is intended to make minimal impact to businesses
and private property. The current concept is
the conversion of the MOA's Merrill Field frontage
road and some Heritage Land Bank properties
to Glenn right-of-way. The road would be expanded
to a total of 7 lanes—3
for travel in each direction and a continuous
center turn lane.
Planning for the 5th Avenue
Rehabilitation Project is in its very earliest
stages, and there will be plenty of opportunities
for the general public and those people and businesses
located on 5th to work with the project team
and comment on its plans as they develop.
 Link
to the Powerpoint presentation used at 3/4/04
meeting
Major
Investment Information Reports (MIS)
- Project
Description
- Options
and Strategies
- Reports
- History
of Project
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