Transportation

Capital Transit will hold three meetings this week on a plan to provide bus service on Riverside Drive in the Mendenhall Valley.

The Juneau bus system is considering moving some portions of Route 4 off Mendenhall Loop Road and onto the south end of Riverside Drive.

Because Juneau is a linear town with few routes, Capital Transit Superintendent John Kern says there are only so many routes the bus can run.

“With just two routes, Douglas and the Mendenhall Valley, we get within a quarter mile of most of the population, including the origin and destination of our ridership. So the goal in laying out the routes is to keep the bus stop at your origin and destination within a quarter-mile walking distance of where you catch the bus,” Kern says.

The proposal calls for a Mendenhall Valley bus to go down a section of Riverside Drive instead of Mendenhall Loop Road. That would provide service closer to Thunder Mountain High School.

CBJ Planner Ben Lyman says the city wants feedback from bus passengers on the proposed change.

“These aren’t really so much meetings as chances for the public to come in and talk to us, look at the maps, ask questions and then fill out a short survey so we can get more information and make an informed decision,” Lyman says.

The Monday session is from 5 to 7 p.m. Two more will be held on Tuesday, from 2 to 3 p.m., and again from 5 to 7 p.m. All three sessions will be held in the CBJ Public Library at the Mendenhall Mall.

Take the Capital Transit Survey.

Work begins Monday (June 25) to reconstruct left turn lanes at the Fred Meyer / Yandukin Drive intersection of Egan Drive.

It has a long history of accidents, according to the state Transportation Department.

DOT Southeast Region Director Al Clough says there will be no left turns until mid-July, while the lanes onto Yandukin Drive and the Fred Meyer access road are lengthened to give “greater separation on the left turn lane to the travel lane.”

Clough says the median between the inbound and outboard lanes of Egan Drive also will be reduced for a greater turning-lane offset.

“Right now if you’re driving inbound on Egan and you want to turn left into Fred’s the left turn lane that you queue up on is not very far away from the lanes that people are driving 60 mile an hour on,” Clough says. “And this will give a little more offset there which will make it easier for people to see what’s going on, and hopefully process the information they see and result in less accidents.”

Regional Traffic and Safety Engineer David Epstein knows the problem first hand and through traffic studies. He developed the project after his annual review of accidents on area roads.

“As I was going through all the numbers the situation kind of cried out for some sort of counter measure,” Epstein says. He often drives that segment of Egan Drive.

“When I’m in the turn lane and there is traffic lined up waiting for the turn, sometimes it is difficult to see oncoming traffic. And between the data that was presented to me and my own personal observations I thought that here was this situation that more or less cried out for some time of attention,” he says.

Speed limits will be reduced during the construction. It will take about three weeks to revise and pave the turn lanes. Project manager Dan Noziska says the lanes will re-open while the asphalt cures, then crews will return about two weeks later to paint the area. Secon is the contractor.

Federal transportation funds will pay for the million-dollar project.

Transportation officials in the Yukon Territory continue to warn drivers of hazardous conditions on two sections of the Alaska Highway.

The road is closed between Watson Lake and Teslin due to a mudslide and washout. One lane reopened this morning between Haines Junction and Destruction Bay, after that section was closed Friday. Officials warn it could close again on short notice if conditions worsen.

For the latest conditions check www.511yukon.ca.

The Downtown Transportation Center waiting area has reopened.

The waiting room and snack bar closed a week ago with little notice, after the vendor notified the city that he could not fulfill the terms of his lease.

Empanada Durada closed immediately and the city shut down the waiting area to partition it from the lunch counter.

It re-opened Friday morning so passengers would have a dry place to wait for the bus. CBJ Parks and Recreation Director Brent Fischer says the city is now in the process of creating a Request for Proposals for a new vendor.

“One of the things we’re looking for is someone who can convey information regarding Capital Transit’s bus schedule, make change, any other information that a typical patron using bus might have. But if they want to come in and have food or coffee service, we’re certainly open to that. If they have a different type of business, we will definitely look at it,” Fischer says. “We just want to make sure it’s conducive to the environment of a bus waiting area.”

Fischer says the last vendor operated in the space for about 18 months, and had negotiated a lease with the city of 100 dollars a month.

He says a new vendor would be required to operate the same hours as the transit center.

City bus fares will go up next month.

The Juneau Assembly has approved the rate increase for adult and university-student passes as well as cash fares and tokens.

Adult cash fares will increase from $1.50 to $2. An adult pass goes up from $36 to $40, and a roll of 20 tokens will cost $31.50, up $6.50.

University of Alaska Southeast students also will pay $2 more for a bus pass.

Youth cash fares and passes will not change. Senior citizens, children under age 5, and active-duty military personnel still ride Capital Transit buses for free.

Capital Transit operating expenses have gone up 70 percent since 2004, the last time fares increased, according to Public Works Director Kirk Duncan.

To make up the difference, he proposed the fare increase rather than reduce service.

The new rates take effect July 2nd.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click here for the Assembly Resolution adopting the new fares.

It will likely be fall before a traffic revision at Auke Bay is finalized. But state DOT officials say they are listening to local concerns.

The project calls for a roundabout at the intersection of Glacier Highway and Back Loop Road, but residents say that’s not the answer.

The state project, to be built by the Alaska Department of Transportation, has an emotional side and twice petitioners have taken their fears to city hall.

Auke Bay resident Sally Burnham on Monday presented the Juneau Assembly with a thousand signatures collected at various Auke Bay businesses. Last month, Friends of Auke Bay turned in petitions signed by 450 people.

Burnham owns Custom Cuts. She says she’s already moved her business once due to road construction. She handed each Assembly member a thick stack of papers with signatures of people all over Juneau who object to the roundabout, which could mean the demise of DeHart’s convenience store and gas station.

“We are petitioning to protect and enhance the Auke Bay neighborhoods as a safe, walk able place to live, dine, shop, recreate, work and transit,” Burnham says.

She says DOT needs to rethink the plans for the area.

That’s exactly what’s happened, according to DOT spokesman Jeremy Woodrow. “DOT is definitely looking at other alternatives for the corridor there, specifically the roundabout option,” he says.
Woodrow says project engineers are looking at how the project can meet neighborhood concerns and still resolve area traffic issues.

 

The project is part of the Auke Bay Corridor Study to improve pedestrian and vehicle safety. It includes the Auke Bay roundabout or other solution; improvements at Glacier Highway, Fritz Cove Road, and the south entrance to the University of Alaska Southeast; sidewalks along Glacier Highway from Fritz Cove Road to Seaview Avenue and to the North UAS Access intersection; and wider lanes and shoulders.