Anchorage city officials have narrowed Denali Street in Midtown from five lanes to three, with plans to use the outer lanes for snow storage.
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Typically, the city trucks snow farther away to designated snow storage sites.
The lane closure is a pilot project, according to Nora Morse, Deputy Chief of Staff to Anchorage Mayor Suzanne LaFrance. The city is looking at whether having snow storage closer to where snow plows operate will speed up the process.
“It’s all the same crews,” Morse said. “The same crews that plow the roads are the crews that are hauling the snow away, so this maximizes their time actually getting plows through, which is what people really care about.”
The quicker the city plows the streets, the safer they will be for drivers, Morse said. The snow berms will also act as a buffer between the street and plowed sidewalks, making them safer for pedestrians, she said.
The city chose Denali Street because it’s overbuilt, Morse said. At five lanes, the street had capacity for roughly five times as many vehicles as typically use it at peak travel times. At three lanes, the street is still designed to hold about three times the current volume of traffic, she said.
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City officials are monitoring the project, looking at impacts on things like vehicle speed, pedestrian interactions, vehicle travel time and congestion, Morse said. They’re also interested in hearing from the public, she said.
“We really want that feedback to let us know if this is something the community is interested in,” she said. “I think right now we are seeing some people who are skeptical, some people who are really excited about it.”
The city is particularly interested in feedback from people who own businesses along Denali Street, Morse said. Some business owners have already expressed concern that piled snow could decrease visibility as drivers enter and exit their businesses, she said.
The public will have a chance to weigh in on the project next summer. If the project is deemed a success, the city might consider lane reductions on other overbuilt streets, although Morse said there are currently no conversations happening about where those would be.
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