Cooper Landing hikers warned of blasting Monday

It is road construction season, but flaggers will be stopping hikers, not drivers, in Cooper Landing on Monday. Contractors on the Sterling Highway bypass project are going to be blasting between 4 and 5 p.m. May 16. Anyone hiking Slaughter Gulch Trail in Cooper Landing at that time should expect a 30-minute delay at any access point to the trail.
Shaun Combs, construction manager with the Alaska Department of Transportation, says the work will be done between Langille Road to the west, which parallels the Sterling Highway up above Cooper Landing School, and Slaughter Gulch Trail, to the east, which heads up the mountain behind Wildman’s in Cooper Landing. The blasting won’t be on the road or the trail. But to be absolutely sure no one is in the area, flaggers will be stationed at all trailheads for the Slaughter trail and the point where the trail crosses the new alignment for the bypass.
“It’s a small production shot is all it is. We want everybody to know, mainly for the local community here. They’re going to hear a pop here on Monday afternoon. And we don’t want to startle anybody or anybody’s dog to run off or whatnot,” Combs said.
Crews have been going door to door in the area distributing announcements about the impending blasting and posting notices throughout town.
The work won’t impact traffic on the highway or access to the Langille neighborhood.
“It’s not affecting anybody. We just want to let people know that they’re going to hear a boom. Anybody and everybody can get to their houses. We just want to make sure everybody knows it’s not a jet going overhead, it’s not a bomb,” Combs said.
Combs says work is going to ramp up on the east side of the bypass project, by Quartz Creek. Most of the work will be off the highway and shouldn’t impact traffic, other than occasional flagging to allow construction trucks to cross the highway.
More information on the project can be found at sterlinghighway.net.