The state’s department of transportation is slated to begin work on the Dyea Road this Thursday after weeks of pressure from Skagway officials. Residents say it’s been “unsafe” since the December 2nd storm.
State officials say they’re taking advantage of a “good weather window” to fix storm damage to the Dyea Road. It’s been closed except to local traffic for nearly 2 months.
Dyea resident Jeff Brady says the road is reduced to one lane in parts and still in pretty bad shape.
“It really took out portions of the road there. It didn’t totally wipe out the road but it caused a lot of damage to it,” he said.
The Dyea Advisory Board described it as unsafe, narrow, and extremely rough. Early in January, the state of the road was a point of discussion on the assembly dais. Assembly member Orion Hansen, a contractor, said his employees were reluctant to use the road to travel into town for work. An estimated hundred people live out the road and must cross the damaged areas to get to town.
Hansen said the road should have been taken care of—it was damaged in a regional disaster.
“The governor has declared Southeast Alaska and named Skagway as part of the disaster area. And this is very clearly caused by the same disaster. And it’s only getting worse. It’s not very safe at all. And it really needs to be addressed,” he told the assembly at its January 7th meeting.
DOT spokesman Sam Dapcevich says the work was held up due to avalanches on the Klondike Highway, which is a higher priority for the department. He said good weather should mean crews won’t be sent up the highway. The Dyea work crew’s first task this week will be a repair around mile 3 that’s intended to prevent future slide damage.
“They’re going to be building a kind of containment system out of concrete, retaining wall style blocks and filling in behind it, which should keep material from sliding onto the roadway,” Dapcevich said.
A maintenance foreman and materials engineer will come up from Juneau to assist with the process.
The work should wrap up by next Tuesday. The road will be closed to all traffic every day from 8 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
