Alaska highway renovation expected to bring forth ‘Carzilla’

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – A plan to reroute Alaska highway traffic during summer construction is expected to cause disruptions that one official said will seem like a monster.

“It’s going to be ‘Carzilla,’ ” Alaska Department of Transportation Central Region Design Chief Jim Amundsen said during a town hall meeting Saturday in Chugiak.

The state plans to reroute southbound Glenn Highway traffic onto the northbound Glenn Highway bridge across the Eagle River while a three-lane crossing is installed heading south, The Anchorage Daily News reported Tuesday.

The project will likely cause delays for morning and afternoon commutes on the highway, which officials say currently handles about 55,000 cars per day.

The “Carzilla” moniker was an attempt to put a lighthearted spin on what is likely going to be a summer of headaches for commuters passing through Eagle River on their way to and from Anchorage, Amundsen said.

“We figured we might as well get a laugh out of it,” Amundsen said, adding that the name is a nod to a short-term road closure on the Glenn Highway in 2018 dubbed “Bridgepocalypse” by those caught in the massive traffic jam.

This year’s construction will create two northbound and two southbound lanes of traffic sharing the northbound bridge and separated by a concrete divider.

Work is expected to be completed by late 2020 on the project, which is officially called Phase II of the Glenn Highway Artillery to Hiland Capacity Improvement Project.

Phase I included construction of the new northbound bridge across the Eagle River Valley and was completed in 2015. Construction on Phase II began last fall.