The state will resurface a 100-foot section of new roadway near 1.2 Mile Lutak Road after cracks opened in the asphalt there last winter.
Located on the northbound shoulder of the road, the cracks run parallel to the road for about 30 feet and are up to an inch wide.
Subsurface forces apparently pulled the road away from the hillside there, said Maureen Hansen, construction project manager for the state Department of Transportation.
Hansen said the state will replace a geotextile fabric placed under the road there and will use more of the fabric than on the original project. The fabric is used where soils are wet or unstable, she said.
Southeast Roadbuilders of Haines worked as subcontractor on the project for Secon of Juneau. Roadbuilders president Roger Schnabel said this week that the state was aware that section of road was unstable. “They engineered and designed for it. I think they were on top of it.”
Schnabel said his firm has submitted a proposal to do the remedial work. The state this week had no cost estimate for the work.
Southeast Roadbuilders also is resurfacing Lutak Road between Front Street North and Union Street.
Part of the work is changing the angle of intersection between Young Road and Second Avenue. The state initially planned to make a 90-degree “T” intersection at the spot, but modified that in response to Young Road residents concerned they wouldn’t make it up the road in icy conditions.
“It won’t be quite the “T” it was designed to be, but it won’t be the “Y” that’s there now,” Hansen said. The intersection of Lutak Road and Front Street north also will be realigned, she said.
Both sections of road are expected to be completed in September.