State plans $5.2 million roundabout at Sheep Creek Road and West Tanana Drive near UAF

The state wants to put a roundabout at Sheep Creek Road and West Tanana Drive, near the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and on Friday it announced a Nov. 17 open house on the $5.2 million plan.

Today West Tanana is the through street, and drivers coming off the Sheep Creek connector stop to turn left or yield to turn right, according to the department's 2023 project nomination. The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities says a roundabout would be safer, shorten waits for turning drivers and cut exhaust from idling cars. A federal and state "Roundabouts First" policy requires it to consider one before a traffic signal, its project page says.

About $4.8 million of the cost is federal air quality money, which the Fairbanks area receives because it doesn't meet federal standards for fine-particle pollution, according to FAST Planning's funding plan.

The project would also extend a walking path across the intersection and along the north side of Sheep Creek Road to Gold Hill Road, linking existing trails to a network planned near Gold Hill. Trail parking would move to the same side of the road as the UAF trails, so people wouldn't have to cross midblock to reach them.

In 2023, the Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks and the Fairbanks Cycle Club backed the roundabout as long as the department protected the Big Whizzy Trail, which runs alongside Tanana Drive and gives beginning skiers flat access to Smith Lake. UAF also wrote in support.

The price has grown about $1 million since that 2023 estimate. Design rose from $864,000 to about $2.1 million. The 2023 estimate also set aside $200,000 to buy land from UAF, but the current funding plan lists no money for land, though the project page says the department expects to need some to move the parking.

The 2023 estimate flagged other trade-offs: about 0.2 acre of wetlands, filling one small pond and part of a larger one, and more time to plow the roundabout in winter.

The open house runs from 6 to 7:30 pm in the West Valley High School library. Comments are due Nov. 30, and construction is scheduled for spring and summer 2027.