Egan Drive near Fred Meyer drops to 45 mph again Nov. 1 as Juneau waits for a signal

Drivers on Egan Drive near Fred Meyer will have to slow down again this winter. The Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities will drop the speed limit from 55 mph to 45 mph between Sunny Point and Mendenhall Loop Road from Nov. 1 through Jan. 31, the department announced Wednesday.

Those are the months when crashes are most common at the Egan Drive and Yandukin Drive intersection. More than half of the crashes there from 2005 to 2017 happened in November, December and January, according to a state traffic fact sheet. The intersection ranked third in Juneau for total crashes, and the worst involved left turns: 42% of crashes there involved drivers turning left, most of them southbound drivers turning toward Fred Meyer.

The winter months are also the darkest, "when reduced speeds can help lower crash severity and provide additional driver reaction time," the department said in a February question-and-answer document. On Wednesday, it said there have been no crashes resulting in significant injuries at the intersection since the improvements there.

The lower limit is a stopgap. The permanent fix is the intersection's first traffic signal, with protected left turns and signalized crossings for people on foot, paid for with a $12.1 million federal grant, Alaska News reported July 12. The state plans to bid the work this fall and start construction next spring, and the seasonal speed limit goes away once the signal is in, according to the project page.

The intersection already carries 30,000 to 40,000 vehicles a day, and the state expects about 8,000 more as the area grows.