The state is looking at shoulder improvements or more asphalt at the intersection of Front Street and Lutak Road after a motorcycle crashed there Monday afternoon.
The intersection was realigned as part of the recent Lutak Road reconstruction project.
For motorists approaching the intersection from out Lutak Road, the alignment of Front is an optical illusion, project engineer Don Newell said this week. “What you see is the asphalt on approach and the asphalt down the road,” Newell said.
What you don’t see is a break in the asphalt where the street bends. Motorcyclist Jon Hanson of Anchorage broke his leg when his motorcycle “ran out of roadway” there.
“That’s the worst junction I’ve ever seen in my life. It’s going to take someone else out,” said Hanson, an Anchorage-based computer technician on vacation here. The accident occurred at noon on a clear, sunny day on new, dry pavement. Hanson spilled after riding into a gravelly section between the two roads.
Hanson said the intersection appears to be “T” shaped, when it’s actually shaped more like a “J”. He had a local cab driver take pictures for him of the shape of the road there after the crash.
Engineer Newell said the state would do something to improve the intersection. “We know it’s an issue. We’ll make more safety area on that shoulder. At a minimum, we’ll fill the shoulder in.”
DOT’s designers will get another look at the intersection, he said.
Police sergeant Jason Joel said the intersection was the site of several accidents about a year ago, when Front Street’s alignment was changed and before the state placed reflective delineators along the road’s edge. Joel himself ran a new police patrol car into the ditch there while turning onto the street at night while heading northbound on Lutak.
“People used to dart over. Now you actually have to stop and turn onto Front. It’s a problem” although once the roadway was marked, the number of accidents there dropped, Joel said.
Police chief Gary Lowe, who responded to the motorcycle crash, said Hansen appeared to be going at a slow speed when it occurred.
The state Department of Transportation redesigned the intersection to eliminate a “Y” shape there that is considered unsafe. Posts with reflectors that helped show the changed contour of the road were recently removed for paving.
Motorcyclist Hanson said the intersection was problematic for motorcyclists, who have to lean their bikes to make turns. A sharp left, then right, at the intersection would continue to make it difficult, he said.