State puts emergency erosion work on Talkeetna's only highway out to bid

Bids were due Friday on an emergency state contract to protect the Talkeetna Spur Road from the Susitna River, which has been eroding the riverbank near the road.

The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities advertised the state-funded job Oct. 2 and gave contractors a week to bid. The engineer's estimate is $2.5 million to $5 million. The contractor would install "near-term erosion protection" at Milepost 13.5 and finish everything but topsoil and seeding by Dec. 15. The Greater Talkeetna Road Service Area board has described the threatened stretch as just north of the railroad tracks.

The Spur is "the only highway connection to the community," Borough Manager Mike Brown wrote in a July memo to the Mat-Su Assembly.

The river took 37 feet of bank along the west side of the Spur between July 22 and July 26, according to a written report from Amanda Fleming, supervisor of the borough's Talkeetna sewer and water utility. As of early August, that left 16 feet between the river and the town's water main, which the utility shut off. Three customers lost water service, and two of those connections have been permanently ended.

If the Spur closes, Talkeetna Fire Chief Eric Chappel told the road board in August, there are two ways in and out. Old Lake Road could handle an emergency evacuation, but its terrain limits it to one lane, one direction at a time. A detour through the train depot area could carry two-way traffic once a 700-foot section is widened and paved.

Talkeetna Community Council minutes from September, summarizing an August meeting with borough and state officials, said about four landowners were under imminent threat from the river. The erosion was hitting private land but had not yet reached the state road, the minutes said, and the department's short-term fix "might include a buried dyke with riprap."

The Mat-Su Assembly declared a local emergency over the Talkeetna flooding July 21, and Gov. Mike Dunleavy declared a disaster July 25, according to the state emergency management division. Brown's memo says the borough made emergency repairs to the town's revetment in 2017, 2020, 2023, 2024 and 2025, and that riprap placed earlier along the Spur and the airstrip was lost this year.

A separate project in the state's draft 2027-2030 transportation plan would address the erosion between Mileposts 13 and 14 and protect against future erosion. It would get about $5 million, more than half of it from the federal PROTECT resilience program. Design, environmental review and land acquisition are scheduled for federal fiscal 2027 and construction for 2028. Comments on the draft plan are due by 5 pm Oct. 29.