Transportation

Shattuck Way may become the latest pedestrian walkway in downtown Juneau.

The Assembly is considering a Planning Commission recommendation to close the narrow downtown street for three years. But Public Works and Facilities Committee members yesterday (Monday) punted it to the Assembly Committee of the Whole, saying they’re not convinced it’s necessary.

Community Development Interim Director Greg Chaney says the idea has been around since the beginning of the cruise ship boom in the 1980s.

“Since that time businesses catering to the cruise ship passengers have moved south on South Franklin, so Shattuck Way is not quite the hot spot it was in the early ’80s,” he says. “The will to turn this into a pedestrian way sort of waned over time.”

Now Miners Mercantile owner Rick Harris wants the street closed. Built at a time when the idea had some traction, the Mercantile has windows and doors opening onto the street that can’t be used.

Closing Shattuck Way would result in the loss of several parking spaces, an idea that a number of downtown businesses oppose.

Dan Glidmann manages Merchants Wharf as well as Goldstein Properties – which owns an entire block of Seward Street. Glidmann calls downtown short-term on-street parking critically important.

“There are only 14 parking spaces on Seward Street from Third Street to Front Street, approximately seven on each block. Imagine the reaction I would get if I requested the elimination of one entire block of parking,” he told committee members. “I would be laughed out of the (CBJ) permit center.”

The first two hours of on-street parking are free, but not in downtown garages,

“Not only would we have we taken away parking places, but we now have charged the public for parking somewhere,” notes Assemblywoman Mary Becker.

The proposal also affects the cultural center to be built by Sealaska Heritage Institute on the vacant lot across Shattuck Way from Miners Mercantile.

Funds are still being raised, but construction could begin as soon as February of next year.

Sealaska Heritage Chief Operating Officer Lee Kadinger says now is not the time to close a street that will be needed for construction.

“We’re looking to target for beginning construction and then all of a sudden moving that to a pedestrian plaza which would try attract tourists in the midst of a construction site,” Kadiner says. “We just think it’s ill-timed.”

In sending the proposal to the Committee of the Whole, Public Works committee members say if the street is closed it should not happen before October 1st.

The state’s lawsuit against builders of the fast ferries’ engines is underway again.

The case was unexpectedly moved out of state Superior Court to federal bankruptcy court back in March. Defendants MTU Friedrichshafen and MTU Detroit Diesel, the German builders of the engines and the American company that maintained them, called for the case to be moved. But it was the builders of the ferries, Derecktor Shipyard of Connecticut, that actually filed for bankruptcy protection in January.

Attorneys for the state and the ferry system allege that the engines for the Fairweather and Chenega are defective. They were worried that MTU’s motion was simply a delaying tactic by the engine builders to put the case on indefinite hold. But during a hearing last week, state Superior Court Judge Philip Pallenberg said the case had been remanded back to him.

Derecktor is not currently part of the lawsuit. But state attorney Dana Burke says that could change in July if a New York bankruptcy court issues a ruling on whether some lawsuits can proceed against the company.

Attorneys also discussed MTU Detroit Diesel’s corporate name change to Tognum America. Both sides said they didn’t think that it would have any significant impact on the case.

A trial had been planned for September. It’s now scheduled to start in early April of 2013 and last at least three weeks.

A group called “Friends of Auke Bay” is fighting a state road project to build a roundabout in the small commercial district north of Juneau. Group members say the project would make the area less livable, and destroy DeHart’s – a popular roadside convenience store and gas station in the heart of Auke Bay.

KTOO’s Casey Kelly reports.

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“Friends of Auke Bay” organizer Karla Hart this week presented about 500 signatures to the Juneau Planning Commission urging the city and state to reconsider the planned roundabout in front of DeHart’s.

The small grocery store and gas station sits at the intersection of Glacier Highway and Mendenhall Loop Road, overlooking Auke Bay. Built in the 1940s, it pre-dates most modern development in the area. Hart thinks other businesses in the Auke Bay commercial district could be threatened by the project.

“Auke Bay is still an incredible neighborhood. It has a lot of locally owned businesses, small businesses that are owner-operated. And we risk losing that,” Hart said.

“Friends of Auke Bay” jumped the gun a bit by going to the Planning Commission this week. While commissioners listened to the group’s presentation, the state won’t seek local permits until later this year at the earliest.

However, the state’s public comment period on final design drawings is open through this Saturday, and DOT Spokesman Jeremy Woodrow says the petition will be taken into consideration.

“Definitely. That’s why we have a public comment period,” says Woodrow. “So we can take these type of items into consideration before the final plan is put forth.”

Woodrow says the state prefers to buy DeHart’s, and build a roundabout that would require demolition of the store. But that’s not the only option. DOT could build a smaller traffic circle that would allow the store to remain in place. The main difference between the two is the number of entry and exit points. The larger version includes a fork into and out of the Statter Harbor parking lot.

But Woodrow says safety is the major reason DOT prefers the larger roundabout. He says the department’s data shows 17 vehicle accidents at the Glacier Highway-Loop Road intersection between 2005 and 2009 – nearly twice the average for the amount of traffic.

“The larger roundabout will improve vehicle traffic and actually it improves pedestrian safety as well, because it allows the roundabout to be more leveled out. It allows better viewing throughout the area,” he says. “That’s not saying the smaller one won’t work. However, if we can get the preferred option in there DOT would like to explore that route first.”

The smaller roundabout proposal calls for a 12-foot retaining wall adjacent to DeHart’s. The wall would remove one of two driveways at the front of the store, as well as a delivery driveway at the rear. DeHart’s co-owner and manager Dan Hickock says it would effectively put the store out of business.

“They’re limiting our access to the store,” says Hickock. “It would not be a convenient convenience store.”

Woodrow says state engineers don’t believe the smaller design would limit access to the store.

Hickock says the state has yet to make him an offer for the property. Even if it did, he’s not sure he’s willing to sell.

“We’ve only been running the store for four and a half years. And we didn’t get in this business so we could just sell it out to the state. We’re in it for the long run,” Hickock says. “We’ve got family here and kids go to school here, and to actually put a price on something like that is kind of a difficult situation.”

DOT’s Woodrow says a decision won’t be made on the roundabout until this fall at the earliest. The traffic circle is part of a larger project to make safety improvements to Glacier Highway from Fritz Cove Road to Seaview Avenue.

A distracted driver was the alleged cause behind a single-vehicle rollover crash that closed two lanes of Egan Drive on Monday afternoon. It happened at 8-mile just after 3 o’clock when the 42-year driver took his eyes off the road while heading inbound.

He drove off the shoulder and crashed into a light pole, overcorrected, and then steered across both inbound lanes. The vehicle rolled over onto its side in the median.

The driver was cited for negligent driving, but he was not identified by police. The unidentified vehicle was reported as a total loss.

The driver was taken to Bartlett Regional Hospital for evaluation and possible treatment of non-life threatening injuries.

An outbound lane and inbound lane were each closed for about a half-hour for the crash investigation.

Exactly how the driver was distracted was not specified by police.

Basin Road will be closed Friday for repairs from 6 a.m. until noon.

Then on Monday, the road and bridge will be closed from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., due to pavement work.

Basin road bridge reconstruction has been underway since last year.

Silverbow Construction’s Larry Gamez says after Monday’s work is done, the project will end for the tourist season.

“We got some pavement to do right there at the beginning of the bridge, and once we get over with the tourist season we’re going to bet back up there October 2nd and then we’ll go ahead and finish it up,” Gamez says.

He says the Basin Road bridge project is about 75 percent complete.

The Flume Trail is usually the alternative access point to the Perseverance Trail system. But avalanche danger is high on the trail right now, and the City and Borough of Juneau is warning people not to use it.

The state ferry LeConte is back in service.

An unidentified mechanical problem sidelined the vessel yesterday (Tuesday), forcing the cancellation of its scheduled roundtrip between Juneau and Haines.

Technicians worked overnight to fix the issue. The LeConte departed Juneau for Haines at about 7:00 this morning (Wednesday). It’s due back at the Auke Bay terminal about 9:00 tonight.