Haugen-Nordic road construction project gets moving

One of Petersburg's biggest construction projects is nearing its end as the other's just beginning.

Work on the $8.6 million Haugen-Nordic road project started last week while nearly $3 million worth of runway resurfacing at the Petersburg James A. Johnson Airport is expected to wrap up by the end of next month, Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities spokesman Jeremy Woodrow said.

Utility work at the end of Sing Lee Alley, on the south side of Rasmus Enge Bridge, got Phase One rolling.

The project will last two seasons with an expected completion date of fall 2016.

Woodrow said Phase One consists of waterline and sewer main work on and near Nordic Drive from Wesley Street to Haugen Drive - much in conjunction with city work.

Petersburg Borough Public Works Director Karl Hagerman said the company doing the work, Secon, is also replacing sewer lines for the borough; 1,900 linear feet of force main and 1,200 feet of gravity sewer.

The $1.3 million project is being paid for through a combination loan grant from the Department of Environmental Conservation. The grant pays for 70 percent of the work and the loan pays for the other 30 percent.

Hagerman said the entire project will cause some disturbances for residents, but that Secon, out of Juneau, does good work.

"That project itself will be quite an improvement for Petersburg," he added.

Hagerman noted that there will also be pipe replacements on Eighth Street and possibly a few small paving projects around town, though those are "up in the air" as Knik Construction out of Bethel may do the work, but is currently focusing on the airport project.

"That's (the Nordic-Haugen work) the big one, really," he said, as ADOT&PF will also be managing the repaving of roads and construction of sidewalks during future work.

City and state projects aren't the only ones that've been going on. Businesses such as Trident Seafoods and Hammer and Wikan have also been in the midst of construction this spring.

Trident's upgrade completion was estimated for June whereas there's still a "long ways to go" for the hardware store, Hammer and Wikan CEO Larry Martin said. But there shouldn't be any more road closures, he added. A section of Excel Street had been closed down during the first of the construction.

Alaska Commercial Contractors, of Juneau, is putting on a new roof and should be done by July 1. John Taylor & Sons, Inc., from Wrangell, is expected to get a new sprinkler system in by August.

Work began on the leaky roof with rotten edges during the first week of May.

"This is an old building and something needed to be done," Martin said.

He added that it'd been given a couple of fixes, but it hadn't been replaced since the building was constructed in the 1960s. The company is planning to replace the roof on its grocery store next year. Martin declined to comment on the cost.