Anchorage Daily News

SOLDOTNA -- Construction on the city's only Kenai River crossing grinds into another tourist season -- eight months behind schedule -- with businesses along the Sterling Highway saying they can't take much more.

Workers closed the bridge for much of Sunday, a bitter reminder of last summer's stop-and-start commerce for tourist-dependent shops.

"People don't want to come down here and get in this mess when it takes 20 minutes or more to get through," said Ken Lacy of Ken's Alaskan Tackle, on the river's south bank. He said some businesses may not recover.

During long closures such as Sunday's, people who need to cross the river face a 21-mile detour through Kenai. But officials say it won't happen again.

State road builders say Sunday's closure in advance of Memorial Day was intended to be the last before contractor Wilder Construction finishes the new five-lane bridge sometime in July. Until then, with the exception of occasional reductions to one lane of traffic during such efforts as landscaping, they expect traffic to move in both directions on a two-lane temporary bridge next to the new bridge.

Pouring the concrete deck over the weekend was a crucial step and depended on good weather.

The sun shone all weekend, though, and now it appears no further closures will be needed, night or day, said Pat Wittrock, regional construction engineer for the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities.

"The traveling public (this summer) should have almost no impact," Wittrock said.

The businesses on either side of the Kenai River have heard assurances of smoother traveling before, though, and some are angry that they're still losing business almost eight months after the project's original completion target.

"The bridge project has cost me thousands of dollars," said Sally Hoskins, owner of Sal's Klondike Diner. She says she can calculate it to the dollar based on 29 years of stable business at the location and the dip in income she saw the day the project started. "Here we're going into another summer with the bridge not being done. I can't believe it."

Hoskins described short closures last summer that backed up traffic to near the Soldotna Fred Meyer store, more than a mile away. Once traffic starts moving after such a closure, motorists want to keep going until they clear the jammed area, she said.

"They don't want to get out of line," she said. "They don't want to stop and get a hamburger."

She also remembers overnight closures that cut into her 24-hour business just as the lucrative summer months came around. She said she has lost nearly 10 percent of her expected revenues since reconstruction began in spring of 2005.

The state provides access to all businesses, but does not compensate them for losses, Wittrock said. He noted that the old bridge was decades old and had just two lanes. The new one will have five lanes to match the Sterling Highway through Soldotna.

"The businesses need infrastructure to have successful businesses, and that infrastructure needs maintenance and replacing," he said.

The project was to have been completed last September, but several problems pushed things back, Wittrock said. One was the shipping of slightly twisted steel girders from out of state. When three were bolted together to make a full length, he said, the deviation became apparent and the girders would not come flush against the bridge supports. Wilder crews needed to improvise to make the girders rest properly, he said.

Moving utility lines to the temporary bridge and sealing off a dry area in the river for building supports also took longer than expected, Wittrock said.

The state has not assessed whether the delays were unavoidable or whether they should affect Wilder's contract, he said.

Officials from Wilder, based in Everett, Wash., with regional offices in Anchorage, did not return phone calls seeking comment.

The crews still must install waterproofing membrane, pavement, curbs and lighting, among other things.

Soldotna Mayor Dave Carey said he expects the new bridge to be a "great asset to the community," but at a cost.

"It has certainly been a hindrance to the community these last three years, but we're greatly looking forward to driving on the bridge," he said.

Daily News reporter Brandon Loomis can be reached in Soldotna at bloomis@adn.com or 1-907-260-5215, ext. 24.