State transportation officials are warning locals in Juneau of major delays around the Douglas Bridge intersection due to construction.
The round-the-clock work on the intersection of Egan Drive and 10th Street is scheduled to begin around 9 a.m. Friday and should wrap by Monday morning.
“Motorists would be doing themselves a favor if they would just stay away, completely,” said Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities project manager Catherine Wilkins.
She said most traffic will be diverted around the intersection — though righthand turns onto, and off of, the bridge will continue.
“We’re kind of ripping the Band-Aid off, here. We want to get this all done at once. We have perfect weather for it this weekend,” Wilkins said. “The numbers tell us that we’ll have delays of about 10 minutes in certain places, but it’s just hard to know until it actually happens. … Boy oh boy, it could end up that it’s much worse than that. So we really are asking people to avoid the area.”
The intersection work is part of a two-year, $14.3 million project to rebuild Egan Drive. Wilkins said it was originally built in 1978. It has been repaired, but it was overdue for this rebuild.
Wilkins said when it’s finished, four lanes near the Four Points by Sheraton will become three lanes, with a pedestrian median and bike lanes.
Some pandemic restrictions have impacted the work — for example, travel for out-of-state specialists. But she said major work is on track to wrap this year. More superficial work, like permanent line painting, may be pushed back to next year.
The contractor, SECON, is posting information about the project and traffic impacts at egandriveproject.com.
