Traffic along Mendenhall Loop Road will be more congested this summer.
State contractors are set to begin construction on two new roundabouts. They’ll start on June 1 on the intersection by Floyd Dryden Middle School, and the following week at Stephen Richards Memorial Drive. The work is expected to take all summer.
“This will be short-term painful and long-term much, much better traffic flow in the corridor,” said Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities project manager Catherine Wilkins. “(I) think we’ve all seen how backed up it can get, afternoon rush hour, especially at Stephen Richards, at the traffic signal there.”
Leaving events at the middle school or Adair-Kennedy Memorial Park should be a lot easier, too.
“We joke about people sending their kid out of the car to go over and press the pedestrian button so that you can get traffic to stop so you can actually exit,” Wilkins said. “Anyways, that will no longer be necessary. We will have a roundabout there. Traffic will flow. You’ll be able to get out of there.”
Wilkins said motorists should drive slowly, and watch for changing signs and pedestrians.
Unlike other roundabouts in Juneau, the one at Stephen Richards will be two lanes.
Wilkins said the project is 100% state funded.
There’s also work coming later this summer on the other end of Stephen Richards Drive, where it hits Riverside Drive. The four-way stop there will be replaced with a traffic signal.
Wilkins said they hope to begin on that after the new roundabout at Mendenhall Loop Road is largely complete.
