Full closure of eastbound and westbound lanes between UAA Drive and Spirit Drive

 ANCHORAGE – Beginning the week after Labor Day, Providence Drive will be closed to traffic between UAA Dr and Spirit Dr for needed road repairs. Construction crews will be replacing a creek culvert that collapsed under the road in March. In order to divert the creek during construction, both eastbound and westbound lanes of the road must be closed to traffic. Construction is scheduled to last for about six weeks, which will allow the road to reopen to traffic in mid-October.

In March, MOA Street Maintenance crews discovered that one of two steel creek culverts had collapsed under Providence Drive, creating a sinkhole and structurally compromising the road surface. Both 78-inch culverts, originally installed in 1981, showed severe rust and corrosion below the waterline. The Municipality closed Providence Dr to complete emergency repairs to the road, building a temporary steel structure to bridge the gap. The temporary repair has kept the road open to traffic while a long-term solution could be designed. The new concrete culvert being installed will not rust, will have a longer lifespan, and is more seismically robust than the original culverts. The new culvert will also allow salmon in the creek to travel upstream more easily.

Drivers are encouraged to follow posted detours and use UAA Drive from the north and Elmore Road from the south to access the UAA, APU, Providence, and Alaska Native Health campuses. Anyone with questions about this project can contact the Project Management & Engineering Department at 343-8135, or email Project Administrator Brooke Blessing at brooke.blessing@anchorageak.gov.

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