The Beauty of Public Projects: A little design goes a long way.

• Author: Kreilkamp, Danny

Perched in the northeast corner of Anchorage lies a curious piece of infrastructure that serves as a gateway to the City of Lights and Flowers.

Approaching from the north and south, drivers pass under a pair of bridges etched with detailed scales resembling those of a fish. When they aren't questioning what brought them to the wrong side of the road, crossers east and west might take note of a crimson fence or tasteful landscape elements.

This gateway is the Glenn Highway/Muldoon Diverging Diamond Interchange (DDI): the only of its kind in the state.

Public projects don't always contain aesthetic design elements, but when they do--like in the case of Alaska's first DDI-they add an intangible, though intrinsic value to the city and its residents.

But who decides when a roundabout gets a face lift? And what amount of funding is allocated to the beautification of a bridge?

First of Its Kind

In most cases, these decisions lie with Alaska Department of Transportation b Public Facilities (DOT&PF).

"All the planning--whether there was going to be an artistic component or some of the extra landscape features--was decided before by the client [in this case DOT&PF]," says Kelly Kilpatrick, a project manager and transportation engineer with DOWL who was involved with designing the iconic Glenn/Muldoon DDI.

"We developed all the details, all the colors, every design, and basically told the contractor, This is what it needs to look like."

The DDI, also referred to as the double crossover diamond, is a fairly recent design to the United States. There are less than 150 completed and currently in use in the Lower 48, though plenty more are in construction.

The Glenn/Muldoon DDI project was first pitched back in 2013 in response to growing concerns over safety and traffic congestion. The DDI was touted as:

* more efficient and having a longer life span than other redesign alternatives;

* the least disruption to traffic during construction;

* and almost $10 million cheaper than other alternatives.

After navigating the usual hoops like preliminary engineering assessments and securing the proper documentation, construction began in spring of 2016 and was completed two years later, funded jointly by state and federal governments.

Public projects like these take "quite a large team to develop" according to Kilpatrick, from the contractor performing the bulk of the construction to the specialized subconsultants handling more peripheral details like the etchings...