Unofficial Chena Hot Springs Road Upgrade Homepage

The Unofficial Chena Hot Springs Road Upgrade Homepage

A community service provided by Gary Newman

This was the webpage created to inform folks about the major rebuilding of the Chena Hot Springs Road, which took place from 1996-1998. It remains posted on the web to demonstrate a model for communicating to residents on future road construction projects.

Latest News / Old News
Why this page?
Who is in charge?
What is this project going to do?
General Information
Schedule of construction
Traffic during construction
Common questions
Complaints or Compliments
Project Details
Final 1997 CHSR Upgrade Homepage

Why this page?

In order to expedite information on the road reconstruction of Chena Hot Springs Road for users and residents, I am providing this page. As a former member of the FNSB Planning Commission that was responsible for approving the location of the road reconstruction many years ago, and as a user/resident who participated in public hearings on the project design, I have had a special interest in this project. Like other users of this road, I have questions and complaints. Please don't complain to me though, as I have no power or authority. The information contained in this page is information I have obtained from various sources, particularly Exclusive Landscaping and the State of Alaska DOT/PF, and is without warranty of any kind.

Who is in charge?

The project is a roughly $13 million dollar project designed by and overseen by the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities. The project was designed under contract to DOT/PF by R & M Engineering (452-1655), lead designer is Jim Wellman. The Project Manager on site is Rod Anderson and can be reached on site at (907) 488-3915 or via email at: rod_anderson@dot.state.ak.us. The main contractor for the project is Exclusive Landscaping and Paving, Inc., a Fairbanks contractor located at 1570 Richardson Hwy., (907) 488-8833 / fax 488-8999. There are a number of subcontractors, who work for Exclusive Landscaping:

Arctic Surveys aka Stutzmann Engineering - surveying
Arctic Striping - traffic control
T & M Construction - flagging
Grasle - electrical
Royal Contractors - hauling
Diamond Fence - fencing, (perhaps guard rails?)

What is this project going to do?

This project will be doing a number of things: The Chena Hot Springs Road is being re-built, as it is sad need of it. It was last re-built in 1978. Chena Hot Springs Road will be expanded to a 4 lane road from the Old Steese Highway to Juniper Drive, just beyond Steele Creek Road Chena Hot Springs Road will be re-built into a wide shouldered two lane road from Juniper Drive to Nordale Road. Generally, the hills will be shaved down and the valleys filled up. Some driveway and road access to Chena Hot Springs Road will be diverted or eliminated. Others will be improved. More on that under details. There will be an established bike/multipurpose use trail separate from the road along the entire length of the project on Chena Hot Springs Road. Wide shoulders will be contructed on the main Chena Hot Springs Road allowing for commuter cyclists to more safely cycle to and from town. Some major intersections will be illuminated. There will be left turn pockets established for some of the access roads.

Above is a dramatic photo of Phase II, taken by Sam Harrel Fairbanks Daily News Miner

Caveat: this isn't a great scan, the original printed in the May 20, 1998 Newsminer was much better.

General Information

DOT/PF encourages you to visit their project office, open between the hours of 8 am - 5:30 pm, or call them at 488-3915. They have copies of the contract and plans at the project office (located on the north side of Chena Hot Springs Road at 5 mile, just past Rifle Road) and at DOT/PF offices on Peger Road. According to DOT/PF policy, if you wanted your own copy of the plans, there is a copying charge of one dollar per plan sheet (111 sheets) with a copying charge for the contract pages (about 250 pages) are 25 cents a sheet They do have several sets available at the project office, so they might let you borrow one, as it is a bit much to read in one short sitting and prohibitively expensive to purchase by the page. DOT/PF has a brief web page on this project at: http://www.dot.state.ak.us/external/state_wide/dnc/chena_hot.html.

Schedule of Construction

The project is being constructed in two phases:

Phase I is construction of the four lane road from the Steese Expressway to Steele Creek Road at 4 mile. WThat which was torn up for construction was paved by October, 1997. Philip Anderson of Exclusive Landscaping said they had hoped to be done sooner, but were put nearly a month behind schedule due to the unexpected excavation of the black muck hole just east of Bennett Road in late June/early July.
Follow-up completion still pending as of April 1998 is signage, lighting, the bike path and slope work. This work will be folded into Phase II detailed below. Also still pending is DOT direction on what to do about the unstable base just east of Bennett Road where all the dips are. See Latest News.
Phase II is the two lane rebuilding of Chena Hot Springs Road between Steele Creek Road and Nordale Road (technically to Risse Road) and is scheduled to be started and completed during the summer of 1998. Expect a LOT of dirt to come off the 5.5 mile hilltop and be filled in the valleys at Steele Creek and Nordale Road! Exclusive Landscaping got started the the week of April 13, 1998. Here is the basic schedule as provided to me by Dan Anderson of Exclusive Landscaping April 10, 1998.
- April 14, 1998 - surveyors begin
- April 14, 1998 - brushing begins
- April 20, 1998 - grubbing begins
- April 27, 1998 - scrapers (heavy equipment) begin moving dirt
- June 1, 1998 - scrapers done moving dirt and gravel hauling begins
- July 1, 1998 - gravel hauling complete, begin grading in preparation for paving
- August 1, 1998 - paving done
- September 1, 1998 - project done, including signage, striping, etc.
- Note that this was a spring 98 estimate - not obviously on schedule

Traffic during Construction

DOT/PF says to expect the pilot car to be in operation Monday through Friday from 8 am and Saturday beginning at 7 am. Usually the contractor stops work at 5:30. The pilot car stays running only as long as it takes the contractor to prepare the road for evening traffic.

Latest News

Oct. 16, 1998 - Info from DOT Project Assistant Madrilena Bradley. Near the completion of each project, various departments go through and review the work. The departments usually included representatives from Maintenance, Design, Traffic and Environmental. Their comments, along with the remarks of the Project Engineer make up a final 'to do' list that is discussed with the contractor. Part of the discussion will include what work, if any, must be completed this year; what work if any, the contractor will complete next year, and what work the State will finish. This is the process that the project is currently undergoing.

Oct. 3, 1998 - Info from DOT Project Assistant Madrilena Bradley.

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.

Sept. 29, 1998 - Info from DOT Project Assistant Madrilena Bradley.

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.

Sept. 19, 1998 - Info from DOT Project Assistant Madrilena Bradley.

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.

Sept. 15, 1998 - Things are getting closer and closer to seeming more complete. Paving now starting this Thursday. One of the road crew commented how nice it will be that we residents will then be able to drive faster than we already do on the gravel road (:-). He notices some mailboxes that got clipped along the road that seemed like the car that got them must have been airborne. I told him the secret of getting past all the old dips and ruts was to drive fast enough to fly over them.

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.

Sept. 15, 1998 - Info from DOT Project Assistant Madrilena Bradley and confirmed on the road.

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.

Sept. 10, 1998 - Info from the DOT webpage hasn't been updated on line due to staff shortages.

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.

Sept. 4, 1998

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.

Old News

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

Common questions

Questions on this project in 1998 should be addressed to the project manager Rod Anderson at: rod_anderson@dot.state.ak.us or Madrilena Bradley, Project Assistant.

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.

Complaints or Compliments

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)

Please address any complaints to the DOT/PF project manager Rod Anderson via email , the project office at 488-3915, or direct to Exclusive Landscaping at 488-8833.

I hope you find this site useful. Gary -

The Unofficial Chena Hot Springs Road Upgrade Homepage

A community service provided by Gary Newman

Above is a dramatic photo of Phase II, taken by Sam Harrel Fairbanks Daily News Miner

Caveat: this isn't a great scan, the original printed in the May 20, 1998 Newsminer was much better.

Last updated Oct. 18, 1998