Downtown Wasilla would go one-way under an $83 million state project

Downtown Wasilla's street grid is about to go one-way. The state opens bids Sept. 25 on an $83 million project to reroute traffic through the historic town center, work that would run through 2028.

The design turns four streets into a "couplet," a pair of one-way corridors carrying traffic in opposite directions. Main Street and Knik-Goose Bay Road would run southbound; Talkeetna and Yenlo streets, extended, would run northbound, between Bogard Road and the Palmer-Wasilla Highway. It also builds a new intersection where the northbound corridor crosses both the Parks Highway and the Alaska Railroad, a spot the state says has a higher-than-average crash rate.

For the businesses and property owners along those four streets, the change is permanent. After two construction seasons, they lose two-way frontage for good. The project's comment record shows both support, from people who want the congestion eased, and worry about lost parking and the toll of construction on downtown businesses.

The project has grown more expensive and slower to arrive. As recently as last year the state planned to award it in fall 2025 and build in 2026 and 2027; construction is now pushed to 2027 and 2028. The combined construction-and-utilities figure rose about 26 percent between the 2024 plan and the current one, roughly $14 million more. The state's records don't explain why the timeline slipped or the cost climbed.

The design itself is old. It's the preferred alternative from a federal environmental finding signed in 2013, re-evaluated twice since, most recently in 2018. Acquiring the needed land, partial takings from 37 properties with no one displaced, was expected to wrap this summer. The records don't say what the state paid.

The bid records carry no position from the City of Wasilla, the borough or the railroad, and none of the three listed project contacts is quoted.