A new $81 million intersection to improve traffic flow and safety is being designed for Fairbanks’ Steese and Johansen Expressways.
The design has been scoped by Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities engineers since 2018, but requires local municipalities to grant the state planning authority. It’s up for a public hearing this week before the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly, but it is missing a trail underpass the borough and other groups have asked for.
What planners are now calling the Steese-Jo intersection carries approximately 21,000 vehicles throughout the day. At a Planning Commission meeting March 28, borough planner Donald Galligan said in coming years that load will get heavier and heavier causing congestion at the intersection.
”With the forecast traffic, if we do nothing, we see the entire network in this area failing,” Galligan said. ”This would essentially turn this whole area into gridlock without any kind of improvement.”
Galligan explained why DOTPF is proposing what’s called a diverging diamond interchange, similar to one completed in 2018 linking Anchorage’s Muldoon Road and the Glenn Highway, for the two big expressways.
“While this particular design is new to Fairbanks, these interchanges are proliferating throughout the Lower 48,” he said. ”It moves vehicles better. It has some interesting or unique features to it that allow vehicles to move through relatively unimpeded. It will also enhance local bicycle and pedestrian routes and safety improvements.”
Ahead of this week’s meeting, design documents are included in the borough Assembly’s agenda packet. They show cost and environmental considerations, the impact on moving a Church of Jesus Christ LDS building on the corner, the flow into and out of Farmer’s Loop Road and how bike and pedestrian lanes will be built. But there’s nothing in the design documents about a trail connection under the roadway.
Jackson Fox with Fairbanks Area Surface Transportation Planning, the state-designated planning group for Fairbanks and North Pole, says the underpass design is simple.
“It’s basically a very large culvert that would go underneath the Steese Expressway just north of the Johansen intersection,” Fox said.
According to Fox, the underpass has been part of plans for a ski and hiking trail up to 100 miles long, or connect to the proposed Alaska Long Trail.
“There’s been a desire for this underpass, so the trail systems from Birch Hill Recreation Area, you could safely ski from there underneath the highway and then connect in over to Creamer’s Field and UAF, you know, it would complete a connection all the way across town,” he said.
The Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks proposed in September 2021 that the borough construct the underpass from Birch Hill using funds from the American Rescue Plan Act. The borough Assembly passed a resolution of support for an underpass a month later, followed by the Fairbanks City Council and the FAST Planning Policy Board.
FAST Planning wrote the FNSB Planning Department in December, asking staff to include the underpass in the design and environmental documentation.
DOTPF spokesman John Perreault said Tuesday that even though there is no documentation of the underpass in the Assembly’s meeting documents this week, it is still part of the state’s plan.
”We have heard concerns that the underpass was being taken out, and as of this morning, the last time I spoke with the Northern Region director, the underpass for the ski trails is included in the plans,” Perrault said.
Fox at FAST Planning says he’s been working with DOTPF planners over the winter on the intersection design. He says adding the underpass for skiers will cost $2 million more than the $81 million cost estimated by the state.
“ DOT will move forward with designing it into the project, but their expectation at this time is that FAST Planning provide the $2 million,” Jackson said.
Fox says state and borough representatives worked together to approve FAST Planning’s five-year budget, but did not specify the need to add money for the underpass.
DOTPF’s Perreault says funding for the underpass is still being negotiated.
FAST Planning Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee is also having a meeting online and in-person from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday, just before the borough Assembly takes up its Steese-Jo intersection resolution during its 7 p.m. meeting that evening.
