Mat-Su planners reject northern route for Engstrom-Trunk connector, back cheaper southern route

The Matanuska-Susitna Borough Planning Commission rejected a northern route for a new connector between Engstrom Road and Trunk Road on Monday and instead backed a southern route that speakers put at roughly $9 million. The northern option was cited at $21 million to $31 million, more than twice the southern estimate.

Six commissioners, McCabe, Glenn, Scoggin, Fonoff, Carpenter and Allen, voted against the main motion, and the clerk announced it had failed. Planning and Land Use Director Alex Strawn then read a substitute measure backing the southern route into the record. The commission adopted it without objection.

The substitute rests largely on safety. It finds that a southern connector between Trunk Road and Engstrom Road would give Central Gravel Products an alternative primary access. It would also remove the majority of the company's truck traffic from the stretch of Bogard Road between Trunk and Engstrom and from the Engstrom-Bogard intersection. The measure contrasts the strong opposition of northern-route landowners to negotiating right-of-way with the southern route's primary property owner, who has gone on record offering to provide right-of-way.

Cole Branham, the borough's project management division manager, had recommended the northern route. He said it offered "the best overall balance of connectivity, resilience, access, future growth, and public support for this project," and would carry nearly double the traffic, a little over 1,300 vehicles per day against roughly 740 for the southern route.

That recommendation differs from the borough's published project materials, which identify the southern alignment as preferred based on long-term planning, topography, use and public input, and state that 35% design plans are being developed. Neither Branham nor commissioners reconciled that statement with his remark later in the meeting that no funding has been identified to move the project into design.

The southern route runs about 0.9 miles. It begins roughly 0.4 miles north of the Bogard Road-Engstrom Road intersection and merges into North Old Homestead Road. It was also the alignment presented to voters in TIP 21 and identified as such in an October 2025 route selection report.

Several residents testified for the southern route. Rod Hanson, speaking for the North Lakes Community Council, said the council and the Fishhook Community Council both strongly support a southern route and that it "should have been built years ago." Others cited family land rights and cost. Gravel pit owner Jade Laughlin said "the southern run is the only one that makes sense. The borough can't afford $30 million, much more than they can't afford $9 million."

The rejected measure was Resolution 26-13. The substitute the commission adopted, Resolution 26-18, now goes to the borough assembly. Branham said no funding has been identified to carry the project into design.