After a jam-packed room full of East End Road residents and business owners reacted at an April 16 public meeting with near universal opposition to a plan to fix the "sag curve" at Fritz Creek, officials from the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Utilities have ditched the idea entirely, deciding instead to spend $9 million to improve the road from Kachemak Drive to Waterman Road.

"We looked at the money we had to work with and what the public wishes were. There wasn't much support for the idea of fixing the sag at Fritz Creek so, taking into account the public sentiments, we would propose building the road as far as funds will allow," said Project Manager Mike Hall.

The new plan calls for $9 million in federal money -- all of the funding presently available for the project -- to be spent improving East End Road and its multi-use path for an approximately two and a half mile stretch out to Waterman Road. The improvements will include widening the road to 32 feet -- 12 feet for each of two lanes plus a four-foot shoulder on each side -- and extending the multi-use path, said Hall.

The project also includes plans to improve drainage in the area, including at Waterman Creek, where the surface of the road has begun to crack and show signs of erosion damage, said Hall. A new, larger culvert will be installed at Waterman Creek and other "drainage improvements" will be made in the area.

Additionally, state officials are considering moving the multi-use trail from the north side of the road to the south side at McLay Road, located about a quarter of a mile past Kachemak Drive.

The proposed crossing would have signage in place but would not require drivers to stop for pedestrian traffic, said Hall.

"I don't believe it would be the type of thing where you would push a button. The user would have to watch for openings in the traffic," he said.

The decision to proceed with the Waterman Road plan has been made and no further public meetings on the subject are planned, said Hall.

"This is the direction were going to go now," he said.

There is still much to be done before construction can begin on the road, however, and Hall estimated the next step in the process -- acquiring more than nine acres of right-of-way along the project's route -- would take at least a year and a half.

In the meantime, state officials are working on a final, clearly defined plan that they can take to the Federal Highway Administration for approval.

The latest proposal is a much scaled-down version of an ambitious plan, first authorized in 1997, to provide safety improvements and road rehabilitation to East End Road from Kachemak Drive all the way out to McNeil Canyon Elementary School, a distance of eight and a half miles. Several factors, including a drastic decrease in the amount of federal transportation coming to DOT and a nearly 100 percent increase in cost estimates for the full project, have led to the project being scaled back, said Hall.

Except for a repaving project completed in 1998, no actual construction work has been done on the road in 12 years.

Once the $9 million is spent, the future of the original East End Road rehabilitation project is up in the air, said Hall.

"I don't know the answer. I would like to think the project is still alive out to McNeil Canyon but it's probably going to need other funding sources," he said.

Aaron Selbig can be reached at aaron.selbig.@homernews.com.