Kenai residents can expect significant changes to the Kenai Spur Highway as the Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities (DOT&PF) has awarded a $29 million contract for Phase II of the highway’s rehabilitation. Construction is set to begin in spring 2026, with substantial completion anticipated by June 2028. The project will focus on the stretch between Sports Lake Road and Swires Road.
The Kenai Spur Highway connects Kenai and Soldotna and currently faces higher-than-average crash rates, including being second in Alaska for moose collisions. DOT&PF Commissioner Ryan Anderson stated, “The Kenai Spur Highway is one of the busiest and most important corridors on the Kenai Peninsula, and this project is about making it safer for everyone who travels it. Getting to this point was not easy—we faced serious Buy America challenges that had to be resolved before we could move forward. Thanks to the persistence of our team and support from our federal partners, we are now ready to deliver a project that will save lives and improve travel for Alaskans.”
Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Peter Micciche expressed appreciation for progress on the project: “I speak for the thousands of Kenai Peninsula Borough folks who traverse the Kenai Spur Highway daily that we are grateful to arrive at an awarded contract and completion date. Our thanks go out to Commissioner Anderson for his personal involvement, the Alaska Department of Transportation, and all involved for working through challenging federal requirements to get us to this point. It’s admittedly been a long road, but residents will appreciate the much-needed five-lane design between both cities, continuous lighting, the smoothing of steep grades and a quality new surface. The improvements will reduce accidents, address one of the highest moose collision areas in the state, and provide better lighting and turning movements for Kenai Peninsula drivers and visitors.”
The planned upgrades include converting approximately 5.7 miles from two lanes into five lanes with 12-foot through-lanes, a 14-foot continuous Two-Way Left-Turn Lane (TWLTL), continuous lighting between Delta Avenue and Dolly Varden Street, culvert replacements, guardrail updates, pathway rerouting, driveway modifications, and measures aimed at reducing moose collisions.
This section forms part of a 39-mile highway built in 1956 connecting Soldotna with Kenai and Nikiski; a shared-use pathway was added in 2004.
DOT&PF manages transportation infrastructure across Alaska including airports, ferries serving dozens of communities along marine routes totaling over three thousand miles, more than five thousand miles of highways, as well as hundreds of public facilities statewide.
