State gives DOT Matanuska riverbed to armor the Old Glenn near Palmer

The Alaska Department of Natural Resources on Wednesday granted the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities a public easement over 65 acres of state-owned Matanuska River bottom along the Old Glenn Highway near Palmer, letting DOT build rock armor out into the river to protect the road.

The easement runs about 2 miles, from milepost 14.5, near Bradford Drive, to the Matanuska River Bridge at milepost 16.7, and is 250 feet wide. It has no end date. The need for it "can be expected to last for as long as the highway is in use," DNR wrote in its decision.

DOT plans six spur dikes, built out from the bank into the river, east of the bridge. It also plans riprap revetment along the bank from Maud Road to just north of Bradford Drive. Current plans don't use the easement's full width, DNR wrote. The extra room allows for future armoring and monitoring in areas where the bank isn't eroding yet.

The river has been working on this stretch for years. Emergency projects in 2013 and 2016 placed about 1,600 feet of riprap near milepost 15, and more armoring went in near Maud Road in 2025. In May, the Mat-Su Borough Assembly voted to give DOT nine riverfront parcels near Maud Road that the borough had bought through federal hazard mitigation buyouts after homes there faced river erosion, Alaska News reported.

Two landowners in the area DOT wants to widen into commented. One asked whether the state would pay fair market value. The other, who said theirs appears to be the only privately owned parcel left in the area, objected that the easement would affect nearly half the property and make that part unusable, and said they would sell all or part of it at fair market value rather than give it up.

DNR answered that it can grant easements only on state land, here the river's submerged land, and that it is not proposing to acquire private land.

The draft 2027-2030 Statewide Transportation Improvement Program lists $33 million in federal fiscal year 2030 for the project tied to the easement, which covers erosion control along both the Glenn and Old Glenn highways. Comments on the draft close Oct. 29.

The decision can be appealed to the DNR commissioner by Nov. 3. Otherwise it takes effect Nov. 14.