FAIRBANKS -- Road construction in downtown Fairbanks is drawing complaints from residents and businesses, but state highway officials say it had to be done.

Department of Transportation spokeswoman Meadow Bailey tells the Fairbanks Daily News Miner that the project north and south of the Chena River realigns a road that had unsafe, inconvenient turns, such as a hard right after the Cushman Street bridge. She says 15,000 vehicles per day use the corridor.

The project will by late 2013 incorporate a second bridge across the Chena in the downtown core.

HC Contractors Inc. project manager Travis Malin says he understands public frustration but hopes people will be patient. He says their perception will change when they see how the new road alignment eases congestion.