The Haines Borough and Chilkoot Indian Association are putting a combined $1.3 million toward Third Avenue improvements between Main Street and the Haines Highway.
The improvements will include replacement of existing sidewalks and gutters and construction of new sidewalks and gutters along both sides of the street where currently there are none, said manager Mark Earnest.
The existing road will be excavated so construction crews can add more than a foot of foundation materials used to stabilize the road, Earnest said. “We have some changes to make, but I would say the project is 95 percent designed at this point,” he said.
PND Engineers is performing the design.
Public facilities director Carlos Jimenez said the project initially included resurfacing of the borough administration building parking lot, but that portion of the plan was scratched for funding reasons. “We brought down the scope of work to get a price that matches the budget,” Jimenez said.
Improvements also will include replacement of a 24-inch, 400-foot long culvert along the east side of Third Avenue. Underground storm drainage systems will also be replaced and installed.
Jimenez said the work will not include burial of power lines, although the borough would support that option if it had the funds. “That gets really expensive… If the money was there, we’d do it for sure,” he said.
The borough is contributing $900,000 to the project; the remaining funds from a grant for road improvements awarded by the Alaska Legislature several years ago, Earnest said.
The Chilkoot Indian Association is putting $350,000 toward the improvements.
Jimenez said he hopes to put the project out to bid this fall for construction to start next spring.