Kenai’s North Spruce Street — formerly gravel — has been paved for a reduced price because of its use as a detour during ongoing work on the Kenai Spur Highway.

Quality Asphalt and Paving, the company contracted by the Alaska Department of Transportation to replace culverts and repave an approximately .2-mile section of the Kenai Spur Highway, offered the paving job to the city of Kenai for $15,000. According to a memo by Kenai Finance Director Terry Eubank, the approximately 2,000 foot paving job would otherwise cost the city between $75,000 and $85,000. At a six-minute special meeting Tuesday the Kenai City Council unanimously voted to accept the offer, spending $15,000 from the remains of a $150,000 state grant for the paving of First Street, which is nearly finished, according to the text of the resolution to transfer the funds.

This summer the Department of Transportation is stopping traffic on the section of the Spur Highway — between Kenai’s Spruce Street and North Forest Drive — to replace the four culverts that allow anadromous fish to pass beneath the road. The crew replaced three of the culverts in June, stopping this month for the increased traffic brought by the Kenai River personal-use dipnet season and commercial fishing. A detour was set up — north on North Spruce Street, east on Fourth Avenue, and south again on North Forest Drive.

Work to replace the last culvert will resume Monday and is expected to last until August 15, during which time the Spur will close and traffic will once again be routed through the North Spruce Street-Fourth Avenue-North Forest Drive detour.

After the final culvert is replaced, Quality will repave the stretch of the Spur Highway, improve the sidewalks alongside it and replace the curb ramps. Workers expect to finish this fall, although minor work such as sign replacement or stripe-painting could continue into next summer, said Department of Transportation spokesperson Shannon McCarthy,

Reach Ben Boettger at ben.boettger@peninsulaclarion.com.