TRUCK FIRE – Firefighters knock down a fire in a Ford Explorer truck in Arrowhead Trailer Park in the 1200 block of Sawmill Creek Road Saturday evening. One person received fire-related injuries and was taken to the hospital, Sitka Fire Department Chief Craig Warren said, and the truck was considered a total loss. The cause of the fire is under investigation, Warren said. The fire hall received the call about the fire at 5:33 p.m., and one fire engine with eight firefighters and an ambulance were dispatched, he said. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
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Daily Sitka Sentinel
Edgecumbe Drive Project Moving Along
By TOM HESSE
Sentinel Staff Writer
Safer crosswalks, a multiuse path and Sitka’s second roundabout highlight the changes you can expect to see on Edgecumbe Drive when it’s finished.
The mile-long resurfacing project fell behind schedule following design changes and other hang-ups. But with paving likely to begin in the next few days, David Longtin, senior engineer with the city public works department, said it won’t be long before the new features are unveiled.
For one thing, the bike lane, which used to be a narrow strip on the downhill side of the roadway, has been moved completely out of the street.
“We didn’t like it because it encouraged wrong-way bike travel,” Longtin said. “People wanted to use the bike path, but when they were headed north then they were on the wrong side of the road, and that’s something that we wanted to eliminate.”
The solution, he said, was to narrow the roadway between the curbs and use the space that was gained to widen the sidewalk, which will be open to bikes as well as pedestrians.
“This used to be just a regular sidewalk but now it’s going to be 10 feet wide,” Longtin said.
Speedy bike riders can still use the regular roadway, he added.
Paving on the path could start as early as Saturday, and after that crews will focus on paving the main part of the street.
Eddy Cawyer with S&S Contractors drives a steamroller over the Kimsham and Edgecumbe Drive intersection Thursday. The intersection is being converted into a roundabout. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
“Depending on the weather they may start paving this multiuse path Saturday afternoon,” Longtin said. “They can essentially do 150 linear feet of paving per hour, so once they get going this whole thing can get paved within a week, if the weather cooperates.”
The latest addition to the Edgecumbe Drive plan is a roundabout near the top of Kimsham Street, where Edgecumbe Drive, Wachusetts, Kimsham, and a private driveway, come together.
The roundabout, which will be the second in Sitka, was designed about a month ago, after traffic engineers decided another four-way stop wasn’t a good idea.
“What we had originally planned was an improvement on what they have now, which is a five-way intersection,” Longtin said.
“Basically it looked good in 2D, looking at the plans ... but when the contractor painted the curb line on the ground, we just didn’t feel that it would be the best solution. It wouldn’t be safe.”
The roundabout will add about $140,000 to the cost of the project, which had a budget of around $4.6 million. Much of the added cost comes through design, additional concrete work and the 28 signs that have to be installed with the roundabout, Longtin said.
“It’ll cost some but we feel it’ll be a good safety improvement and it’ll keep traffic moving,” he said.
Compared with intersections controlled by stop signs, roundabouts reduce collisions by 37 percent, and fatal accidents by 90 percent, Federal Highway Administration studies have shown.
“There’s fewer collisions and when there is a collision it’s more of a glancing blow than a t-bone collision,” Longtin said.
Other safety features are being installed at the Edgecumbe Drive crosswalks near the Keet Gooshi Heen school. In addition to the bulb-outs that reduce the walking distance from one side of the street to the other, there will be rectangular rapid-flash beacons to warn drivers of the crosswalk.
Longtin said to think of the beacons as digital versions of the orange signal flags at the crosswalk on Halibut Point Road near Blatchley Middle School.
“At each of these four corners there will be a sign with a button on it.” he said. “You press the button and all four signs will light up. When somebody presses the button you’ll see these lights from a ways away and it will let you know that somebody’s about to use the crosswalk.”
The system is solar powered, which may sound strange in light of Sitka’s many gloomy days, but Longtin said that’s been accounted for.
“The solar panels are sized specifically for this latitude, and they even looked at the horizon to find out where the sun comes up and goes down,” Longtin said. “They assumed that, worst-case scenario, the sun would not be available for 19 days, and they made the battery and the solar panel so that even without any recharge from the sun for 19 days it will provide up to 700 flashes a day.”
There won’t be stop signs on Edgecumbe Drive at the Kasheveroff and Kostrometinoff street intersections, but the new features should make those intersections safer, Longtin said.
State grants are paying most of the cost of the Edgecumbe Drive improvements, with the city funding the rest.
Plans had called for paving to be completed by Aug. 25, but Longtin said with some weather luck, the finish should not be too far beyond that date.
“If the weather cooperates and the paving plan is working like it should, they could get the stretch from Kimsham to Cascade Creek done in eight or ten days,” he said.
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20 YEARS AGO
March 2004
Businesses using the Centennial Hall parking lot testified Tuesday against a proposal to charge them rent in addition to the $200 annual permit fee. City Administrator Hugh Bevan made the proposal in response to the Assembly’s direction to Centennial Hall manager Don Kluting to try to close the $340,000 gap between building revenues and operational costs.
50 YEARS AGO
March 1974
Alaska Native Brotherhood Grand President William S. Paul Sr. will be special guest and speaker at the local ANB, Alaska Native Sisterhood Founders Day program Monday at the ANB Hall.