The Mat-Su Borough Assembly voted last month to allow heavy trucks to drive on Borough roads during the spring thaw when they are most vulnerable to damage. District 5 Assemblymember Bill Gamble requested reconsideration of that legislation at this week’s hearing. Ultimately, the legislation that was passed last month will stand.
Road Service Areas, or RSAs, are responsible for most of the maintenance of Borough roads in their area. And most have very little money to do that each year. Representatives from each of the local RSAs discussed the change in legislation at their last main RSA board meeting. Some of their requests are included in the new language.
According to Borough Planning and Land Use Director Alex Strawn, heavy trucks will be able to travel on Borough roads during the restricted season. That is, if they pay a $100 fee per trip. Strawn says they must be transporting an indivisible load, which means machinery or something similar. Drivers will also be required to declare their starting and ending locations and the vehicle and load they will be carrying. For each $100 permit, the driver may make one round trip per day.
Should a driver be caught hauling a heavy load during the restricted season on Borough roads without a permit, they could be issued a $1,000 fine.
According to Trapper Creek RSA member David Finch, the main RSA board did not want heavy trucks to be able to travel the whole day. And they requested that if the road was damaged that drivers be responsible for repairs. As it is now, the RSAs will be responsible for handling those repairs with the funding from their area.
Strawn says the Borough will be monitoring the roads this spring to document damage and will report it to the Manager later this year. The Borough as a whole maintains more than 1,100 miles of roadway each year spread over 16 RSAs. According to a Borough representative, at this time maintenance contracts cover about 22 miles in Trapper Creek, about 78 in the Caswell area, about 69 in Talkeetna, and about 65 in the Willow area.
