Cook Inlet’s biggest recorded earthquake did little damage to infrastructure across Southcentral Alaska. And biggest damage has now been fixed up.
Kalifornsky Beach Road re-opened to two-way traffic Wednesday morning.
A 15-foot section of the northbound lane at Mile 1 near Kasilof was damaged in the magnitude 7.1 earthquake that shook Southcentral Alaska on Sunday morning. The lane was closed until work could be done to fix the cracks that happened when the road split and the shoulder side sloughed away from the rest of the pavement.
The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities had a crew out Monday morning, and DOT spokeswoman Shannon McCarthy said the workers were able to make a quick fix.
“They got in there, cut the pavement up, brought material in, filled the holes and leveled it out. Now, it will be gravel, of course, until the summer, because we can’t pave in the wintertime — it would not set. But it is open to two-way traffic.”
DOT will continue to monitor the area, especially during spring breakup as the ground starts to thaw.
“We certainly will monitor the area. I don’t think it will become a mess but you can always have shifting, even with any road. And that’s why they brought in the compactors and things like that to really shore up and tighten up that area, but they’ll of course keep an eye on it and if any additional material needs to be brought in, they will do that.”
The paving project should be quick, as well.
“We were fortunate that was a short section so it will probably be a very straightforward project, just putting together a permanent repair,” McCarthy said.
DOT is asking drivers to reduce their speed and use caution as they drive over that section of road.
