Major Fairbanks intersection to temporarily close Saturday

Jun 11, 2023

The state Department of Transportation will close the major intersection at the eastern end of Airport Way this weekend for nine days to put the finishing touches on a $15 million project that’s been under construction for more than a year now.

Work on the intersection of Gaffney Road, Airport Way and the Richardson and Steese highways is nearing completion. But DOT will close the so-called GARS intersection from Saturday through August 13th for the final step of the project: installation of new traffic signals.

Department spokesperson John Perreault says the new signal system will help drivers navigate through the reconfigured intersection, which is designed to move left-turning traffic away from the through lanes and onto roads that lead to access points to the four streets north, south, east and west of the main intersection.

Perreault says the traffic light system also has built-in safety features like battery backup to keep the system working during power outages.

“Keeping the lights functioning is a very high priority,” he said, “and that’s why we’re putting the backup systems in place to keep those lights functioning, even when the power’s out.”

Perreault says those kinds of safety improvements are intended to reduce the high rate of accidents at the city’s second-busiest intersection, where an average of 35,000 vehicles pass through daily. Only the Johansen Expressway-University Avenue gets more traffic.

And to improve the intersection’s efficiency, Perrault says DOT consulted with snowplow operators on how to make it easy for them to maneuver through it. “So that their needs and the things that they saw were taken into consideration to make it smoother and more efficient to for them to go through and get it cleared as quickly as possible,” Perreault said.

Barring a last-minute glitch, DOT will reopen the intersection on the morning of Monday August 14th -- hopefully in time for the morning commute.

“That is the intention,” Perreault said.

He says DOT plans to complete the last segment of the 14-month project in time for a group of Fort Wainwright soldiers who’ve been away to use on their return to the post.

“The timing was done in conjunction with Fort Wainwright so that when their soldiers came back from group leave, they’d be able to go through the Main Gate, through the new intersection to work,” Perreault said.

A DOT news release says Fort Wainwright will close its main gate and a short stretch of Gaffney Road while the traffic-signal work is being done. But the Trainor Gate and Montgomery Gate will remain open 24 hours a day, and visitor passes will be issued at the Montgomery Gate.

Editor's note: Click here for more DOT maps, diagrams and instructional videos showing how to navigate through the GARS intersection.