State tries to balance safety, scenery in big Seward Highway project
A $75 million project at a popular sheep-viewing spot on the Seward Highway in Alaska is inching toward construction as state planners try to balance safety with the scenery of nearby Chugach State Park.
A $75 million project at a popular sheep-viewing spot on the Seward Highway is inching toward construction as state planners try to balance safety with the scenery of nearby Chugach State Park, Alaska Dispatch News reports.
The project at Windy Corner, about 20 miles south of Anchorage in Alaska, will straighten and widen the highway using about 1.5 million cubic yards of fill, or about 450 Olympic-sized swimming pools' worth.
The project should make the road safer for commuters and for the tourists who pull off the highway to gaze and photograph the Dall sheep, which gather at a salt lick above. But the project will also come at a cost: The soil and rock that will form the highway’s new platform in Turnagain Arm is expected to be mined from a nearby site within the state park, according to the newspaper.