Once slated for construction in 2022, the long-developing Sterling Safety Corridor project has been restarted, with construction now targeted to begin in 2026. Project leads will be hosting public meetings later this month in Sterling and Soldotna to collect feedback. Those meetings are set for June 25 and 26 at the Sterling Community Center and Soldotna Public Library, respectively.

During Wednesday’s meeting of the Soldotna City Council, Public Involvement Lead Stephanie Queen and Design Project Manager Steve Noble gave an update on the project and fielded questions from council members.

The new project team includes the State Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, QAP, Dowl and Stephanie Queen Consulting.

The project, Noble said, is intended to decommission the Sterling Safety Corridor between Soldotna and Sterling — it was first designated a safety corridor in 2009, owing to an above-average fatality and injury rate. The corridor begins near Whistle Hill in Soldotna and ends shortly after Swanson River Road in Sterling.

Previously, the project was intended to construct a four-lane highway through the corridor, with a depressed median.

“It was chosen because it solves a lot of the safety issues that have plagued this corridor,” Noble said. “By a substantial margin, it has a much safer record than what’s out there and some of the other alternatives. It reduces those rear-end crashes, reduces run-off-the-road crashes, reduces head-on collisions, provides much safer passing opportunities and provides the capacity that we’re looking for. The challenge is, of course, that it tends to restrict access.”

It was the significant public feedback received that delayed construction before, Noble said. Many people want to see the corridor improved while also having concerns about how that will happen. For people who live along the corridor, access to their homes could be made difficult without turning left on or off the road.

Though the project is just restarting, he said that is still the “preferred alternative from the previous work.”

“They’ve asked us to go back and revisit that alternative, find ways to try to address the access and the other types of concerns that have been raised by the public over the last couple of years,” he said. “I would ask people to try to keep an open mind.”

A pair of open house meetings are set for this month, for “project reintroduction.” On Tuesday, June 25, the first meeting will be held at the Sterling Community Center from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. The second meeting will be held on Wednesday, June 26, at the Soldotna Public Library from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

More information about the project can be found at SterlingSafetyImprovements.com.

Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.