Mayor Mark Begich remarks
Lake Otis  & Tudor Press Conference
1:30 p.m.; April 23, 2004; Mayor’s Conference Room

          Thanks for joining us. I’m here to announce significant progress toward fixing one of the most troublesome barriers to the free flow of traffic in our city – the dreaded Lake Otis and Tudor intersection.

          The mere mention of this intersection sends shivers down the spines of drivers across this community, because it’s so frustrating. At virtually any hour of the day, you stew in your car watching the traffic lights change in the distance as you creep toward your destination.

          Our traffic engineers report that during the busiest single hour at rush-hour every workday evening, Anchorage residents waste an estimated 686 hours at this intersection, primarily trying to get to south or east Anchorage. That’s the equivalent of 17 work-weeks a day, simply trying to get through an intersection.

          That’s unacceptable, and we’re going to fix it.

          A few weeks ago, I hinted that we were developing a plan to ease traffic congestion at Lake Otis and Tudor. It met with skepticism in some quarters. And I can understand that because Anchorage residents have been putting up with this intersection for many, many years. Right now, the average wait to pass through the intersection is six minutes.

         Without improvements, the wait will grow to a projected nine minutes in just the next four years.

          That’s why a team of municipal employees has been working overtime to make the fix a reality. Over the past several weeks, the city has been quietly acquiring key parcels of land around this intersection. That’s because Lake Otis and Tudor can’t be fixed without some major road work beyond the existing right-of-way.

          The solution we propose is in two phases. First, once all the necessary property is acquired, we will redesign the intersection by moving it to the east. This will enable traffic engineers to add double left turn lanes eastbound, northbound, and southbound. They’ll also add a westbound right turn lane to reduce the cut-through impacts to 42^nd Avenue.

          I want to point out that this plan will not affect the St. Mary’s Episcopal Church on the southwest corner of the intersection. We’ve specifically designed around that.

          Other improvements will be necessary to the roads feeding into this intersection. Merging and turn lanes will be added and extended, and pedestrian crossings improved.

          And a key part of making this traffic flow better is the Bragaw-Abbott Loop extension. This extension will decrease the number of vehicles traveling through Lake Otis and Tudor.

          After all these improvements are made, the time sitting in lights at Lake Otis and Tudor will be cut by more than 60 percent. This will save individual drivers six minutes going through the intersection every day. That’s giving Anchorage residents back 755 hours of their time.

          Phase 2 fixes to Lake Otis and Tudor are longer term, more major and more expensive. Eventually, we believe we’ll need a grade separated intersection here, with either Lake Otis or Tudor Road passing over the other. This is a project for consideration in 10 years.

          For now, I believe we can redesign the current intersection by next year and have traffic flowing more smoothly by 2006.

          Of course, a key part of this fix is money. We estimate it will cost $3 million to acquire the necessary properties, and another $9 million to design, rebuild the intersection and move utilities. We’re asking the state to foot the bill for design and construction because three-quarters of this intersection is state-owned.

          Several weeks ago, I began a conversation with Anchorage legislators about the need for an adequate state capital budget or state general obligation bond for transportation.

          Our city lobbyist, Mitch Gravo, has been working the issue and I’m headed to Juneau Monday to meet with legislators and Governor Murkowski personally to ask for this funding.

          I’ve also talked to the mayors of the Fairbanks North Star Borough and the Mat-Su Borough. Both agree the state needs transportation funding this year and are pressing their legislators.

          Every region is this state has serious transportation needs which I believe the Legislature should address this year. Now’s the time when decisions are being made in Juneau.

          I’ve also talked to key private sector officials involved in our state’s transportation. Several are here:

•             George Vakalis, chairman of the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce;
•             Tom Brigham, former state DOT planning director and now a transportation planner with HDR Engineering;
•             Dwayne Adams from Land Design North and Anchorage Tomorrow;
•             Dick Cattanach of the Associated General Contractors is in Fairbanks today but strongly supports this initiative.

          We’ve also been talking to the state Department of Transportation, because three of the roads in this intersection are state-owned. The only road owned by the city is Lake Otis south of Tudor.

          Bill Robertson, the central region director with state DOT, is here today.

          Now is the time to address one of Anchorage’s busiest and most clogged intersections. We have a prime opportunity to help make midtown traffic and commerce run much more smoothly. I hope the Legislature is up to task to help us.

          Now, let me ask city Traffic Director Lance Wilbur to explain our proposed solution in more detail . . .

          Then Assembly Chairman Dick Traini and Dan Coffey will speak.

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