State proposes roundabouts for Badger Road intersections where crashes persist

The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities on Friday asked people who drive Badger Road whether they want roundabouts at up to seven of its intersections.

Badger Road links the Fort Wainwright area with the Richardson Highway and North Pole, and it is lined with driveways and side streets, about 22 per mile. A 2013 safety review called that a likely factor in the road's high crash rate and recommended roundabouts for future intersection work, according to the department's 2019 project page.

In 2019, the department added a center turn lane along most of the road and improved the curve at Holmes and Peede roads, the intersection with the highest crash frequency on that stretch. Crash counts at the intersections remain high, and speeding is a known issue, the department says on its new project page.

Now it proposes turning up to seven intersections, where only side-road traffic has to stop, into single-lane roundabouts: the western intersection with Old Badger Loop Road, Holmes and Peede, Nordale, Bradway, Repp and Marigold, Peridot Street and Plack Road. The work would go through the federal Highway Safety Improvement Program.

The department's roundabouts page cites an example from Badger Road's North Pole end. Intersections near the Richardson Highway interchange at Santa Claus Lane had 12 injury crashes in the 10 years before the state built three roundabouts there. In the first seven years after, the department reports, there were none.

Under a department policy called Roundabout First, designers who want a traffic signal instead of a single-lane roundabout have to justify the choice in writing.

The department plans to build one or two roundabouts first and add others over time, but only "if supported by residents, neighborhoods, and users of Badger Road," the project page says. Its survey is open through Nov. 6.