The Saga of Otmeloi Way Continues

Kayla Desroches/KMXT

The epic of Otmeloi Way continues on its more than decade-long path to completion.

Kodiak Island Borough community development director Sara Mason says the road, which is near North Star Elementary, is less than a mile long and they’ll do a complete reconstruction.

She describes some of the current issues.

“There’s children that walk to school and then in the winter time, particularly when there’s snow, it’s not really safe for them. After the roads have been plowed, there’s big berms on the sides of the road of snow. And there’s no lighting along Otmeloi. There actually aren’t even school zones signs on Otmeloi.”

There are some structural problems too.

Mason says, back when the island lake area was being developed, some of the trees that workers cleared were buried underneath the road.

She says the decomposing trees affect the driving surface, so the plan is to rip up the road, put down a better base, and pave it. The extent of the work also includes a wide pedestrian path that could accommodate bicycles, for instance.

She says right now the borough is considering a design alternative that the Department of Transportation suggested.

“So, it took the detached path from the original option three and attached it to the road and moved the road slightly so that there wouldn’t be such a change to some of the driveway access, ‘cause the original alternative three was gonna reroute people’s driveways and essentially create a little access road off of Otmeloi.”

The plan is in the question and answer phase and Mason says the dialogue is currently in DOT’s court.

She says once everyone’s questions get answered, it’ll come before the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly, which will decide how the staff should move forward.