Stakeholders Address Transportation Corridors

By John Moosey, Borough Manager

MAT-SU—Representatives from the Mat-Su Borough, the City of Wasilla, the City of Houston, the City of Palmer, and the Alaska Department of Transportation met together all of last week, discussing and planning how to improve existing transportation and address growth challenges. Experts from McCormick Taylor, Philadelphia Engineer and Planning Consultants, led the group.

By John Moosey, Borough Manager

MAT-SU— Representatives from the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, the City of Wasilla, the City of Houston, the City of Palmer, and the Alaska Department of Transportation met together all of last week, at Station 6-1 in Wasilla, discussing and planning how to improve existing transportation and how to address the challenges of steady growth. Experts from McCormick Taylor, Philadelphia Engineer and Planning Consultants, led the group.

"Last budget year I was pleased the Assembly and Mayor supported an effort to address our important transportation needs, Borough Assembly Member Steve Colligan said. "This week's efforts, led by outside experts, was an opportunity for all levels of transportation stakeholders to come together and put forth a unified effort to address essential transportation corridors.  It was very beneficial to have national expertise to help compare and contrast development practices from a national historical perspective."

The effort was designed to open lines of communication on transportation planning between the local government communities and Alaska DOT.

"A key to our success will be including our citizens and business community in future transportation planning actions," Borough Mayor Larry Devilbiss said.

Our next step will be for the Borough Manager, John Moosey, to seek formal buy-in from the cities of Houston, Palmer and Wasilla. "Improvement to our Valley's transportation system has been a top priority," Moosey said. "This is evident with the two recent bond elections where our citizens voted for two sets of road bonds. The message sent by our citizens is loud and clear," Moosey said.

Assembly Member Jim Sykes also gained energy from the inter-municipal coordination. "It is refreshing to see so many different interests provided by our local partners. This will provide a clear path to directly invite citizens to join us in solving our transportation and land use problems," Sykes said.

For more information call Planning Chief Lauren Driscoll at 745-9855 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

-end-