This transcript was lightly edited for concision.
Davis Hovey: So Brian, tell us a little bit about how you ended up in the more than a mile-long traffic jam.
Brian Venua: I spent this morning at the Coast Guard’s Base Kodiak, talking to some folks about the new cutters. Getting there from town was fine, but on my way back, I just happened to get stuck.
D: The state filed a 511 alert, or a road condition warning from the Department of Transportation, saying the road was blocked starting a bit before noon and anticipated it wouldn’t reopen until the afternoon. Do you know what caused the roadblock?
B: It looked like either a car or a trailer hit a power pole and seemed to knock it over. The official statements from Kodiak Electric Association and from the state seemed to confirm that it was just too dangerous to let any traffic go through until repair crews could get on the scene.
D: So how long were you stuck in traffic?
B: I got there heading north towards town around 11:40 and we didn’t start moving until a bit after 1 pm, so almost an hour and a half. It looked like the fiber optic line was just a bit south of the airport, so people were likely able to and from flights to town, but anyone coming to or from the base, Bells Flats, or further out the road ended up getting stuck.
At one point a Coast Guard security vehicle drove by with a loudspeaker announcing “20-30 more minutes. You can probably nap another 15.” It was nice for them to give us at least some kind of estimate how much longer we’d be waiting.
Some people got tired of it though and just turned around. I’m assuming they just went back home or back to the base. A lot of people just turned off our cars since we were stuck for so long – including me. Last I heard some people were still dealing with single-lane traffic with flaggers hours even after I got through.
D: I haven’t lived here too long, but it seems traffic like this is pretty rare for Kodiak, isn’t it?
B: Yeah, it was pretty jarring to see bumper-to-bumper traffic in Kodiak of all places. I went to college in the Lower 48, and getting out of traffic was part of how I ended up back in Alaska.
At first it was pretty funny just being stuck in traffic, and the sheer novelty was charming. If anything it definitely made me feel more grateful for how much of a rarity this kind of thing is.
*Editor's Note: This story has been updated to reflect that one of GCI's fiber optic lines was damaged and caused traffic delays, not a Kodiak Electric Association power line. KMXT has corrected this article and regrets the error.
