Alaska's new season of construction: big spending begins on projects statewide.

• Author: Swann, Kirsten
• Position: CONSTRUCTION

While researchers forecast a slight decrease in overall construction spending in 2015, Alaska companies are staying busy with projects across the state, from road resurfacing to major hotel renovations and other private commercial projects. There are port and harbor projects, new schools, and public safety facilities and oil and gas-related construction along the North Slope and in Cook Inlet.

Some of the most visible projects take place on thoroughfares throughout the state.

Transportation Projects

For the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (DOT&PF), 2015 construction focuses heavily on roads. The department will spend hundreds of millions of dollars rehabbing and rebuilding thoroughfares from Anchorage to Fairbanks and beyond.

"We have a lot of highway safety improvement projects," says Shannon Mc Carthy, a spokeswoman for the state transportation department.

A large part of the work involves pavement preservation, McCarthy says: repaving, leveling, and solving minor settlement problems.

"You're extending the life of the roadway and that's particularly important in areas where there's no new capacity," she says.

In Anchorage, work will take place on International Airport Road between South Aircraft Drive and Homer Drive. The project will cost an estimated $10 million to $15 million and will advertise for going to construction this summer, McCarthy says. Coordination with Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport will be a key part of the process because construction will take place during Alaska's bustling tourist season.

The department is also planning pavement preservation projects on the Old Seward Highway between O'Malley Road and Dimond Boulevard, as well as between Rabbit Creek Road and Brandon Road.

A large chunk of pavement preservation work in Anchorage will take place in West Anchorage, McCarthy says, on Raspberry Road between Jewel Lake Road and Minnesota Drive, as well as West Dimond Boulevard between Sand Lake Road and Jodhpur Street. DOT&PF will also spend from $5 million to $10 million for pavement preservation work on Benson Boulevard between Lois Drive and LaTouche Street.

"It saves maintenance funds in the long run," McCarthy says.

One of the larger Anchorage projects comes with the construction of a new crosstown connection at West Dowling Road. McCarthy says the $36.9 million project involves building more than a mile of new roads, alignment, bridge, and tunnel; connecting Raspberry Road to Elmore Road; and creating a new thoroughfare between East and West Anchorage. The 2015 construction is the second phase of the project, which DOT&PF hopes will reduce traffic on Tudor Road and help connect local roadways identified in the Anchorage Long Range Transportation Plan.

When finished, the project will include a new intersection at Raspberry Road and 68th Avenue, a new bridge over the railroad at Arctic Boulevard, and an access tunnel connecting traffic to NAPA and Arctic Warehouse. The new road is expected to open to traffic in October, McCarthy says, and some additional work may continue into 2016.

"This is a really great project," she says. "It's not that well known because it's a whole new...