A section of Mosquito Lake Road closed this past week while the Alaska Department of Transportation (DOT) conducted drilling to assess area stability.
The road section suffered damage during the early December weather event that caused widespread landslides and flooding in Southeast.
“A short section of the road failed creating a narrow lane and over-steepened slope below the road which could be unstable in the long term,” DOT spokesperson Jessica Eller said.
She said the drilling, which provides information about groundwater and soil composition, will inform plans for repairing the section of damaged road.
The drilling is part of a region-wide response to the early December storm.
“The December 2020 storm caused damage across Southeast Alaska including Haines, Skagway, Juneau, Hoonah and Petersburg,” Eller said. Drilling work in Haines, Skagway and Juneau is expected to be completed by mid-August.
Funding for the work comes from FEMA and the Federal Highway Administration, Eller said. Total project costs are not yet known.
Design work will take place over the winter, once stability assessments have been completed, with construction of high-priority projects beginning in the spring of 2022. Eller said she anticipates repair of all damaged sites will be completed in 2023.