Blog: Dermot Cole
Private road behind Bentley Mall closed due to monster pothole
Published Tuesday, April 21, 2009
•The private road behind the Bentley Mall, which has some gaping holes hiding under the water, has been temporarily closed near Office Max and the Splash and Dash Car Wash.
The holes covered by the water, deep enough to cause some trucks to bottom out, are a product of breakup and poor drainage.
The business owners blocked off the worst spot Monday night, but some drivers decided to ignore the cones and drove over them, hoping to splash and dash.
The private snow dump on the east side of the road seems to the source of the water, which covers a significant stretch of pavement. The depth ranges from an inch or two to who knows what. I didn't care to walk through this morning to get an accurate tally.
This problem is a small part of the overall access troubles on the east side of town.
A new state traffic study suggesting ways to provide better access to the entire area, from College Road to the new box stores, is due out soon.
There have been talks about getting the city to take over the road behind the Bentley Mall and that might make sense.
The overall plan will probably have to include another at-grade railroad crossing to connect the Bentley Mall to the stores on the other side of the tracks.
In exchange, the private land owners might be able to provide the city with a sizable spot to dump snow and take other steps that would benefit the community. An at-grade crossing would benefit all of the business owners in the new box store belt.
The roads in front of Lowe's, Wal-Mart, etc. were poorly maintained again this winter, as it seems the companies are not in unison on what needs to happen when.
There is a maintenance agreement among the businesses, but anyone who drove on the foot-thick ice ridges that formed divided highways for months, might doubt it.
•For my latest column, with updates on the start of the 2010 Census in Fairbanks, the Catholic Ladies scholarship dinner Wednesday, and the new discussion about the state acquiring the Big I property for the Illinois Street project, go to http://www.newsminer.com/news/dermotcole/
At the risk of wearing out my welcome on your website (hope not!): thanks for the info, Dermot. I broke a driveshaft about 30 yrs ago on a Saab driving over & into a hidden pothole, pulling out of a parking lot after coming to a stop.
So glad to see they're going to use part of that road to connect to the NE Fbks shopping center area. It's too bad the ARR tracks are there - now that there isn't as much money floating around, it may be hard to get the RR rerouted around the south of town, but we should still try to have that happen.
Even the Downtown Association should be thinking of linking to the NE area, 'cause whether people like it or not, it's not going to go away. I moved away from those developments 35 yrs ago, but now it's there. DOT ought to establish a road extending north of College Rd, behind Sam's, and over to that area. It also seems sensible to take a look at that area as the shopping center that it is & to stop pretending those are roads, to reroute as much as possible with signage, lights, barriers, etc., & to make lots of safe crossings for pedestrians & bikes - this last is so critical & really should not be overlooked but should be emphasized.
Again, thanks for the info. It really can break your car to drive into those potholes.
This is the same pothole that's been there for as long as I can remember!. Apparently, the pothole has now become the size of a bathtub? Thanks Dermot for bringing attention to the danger.
Hmmm... I read somewhere that this is a Private Road
Let us hope if the city takes over this road, they will not only fix it, but put in sidewalks. There is a lot of foot traffic in the area, and these people end up walking out in the road.
lol, that hole appears every year. I have fond memories of pausing and thinking before braveing the puddle in my little car... the last few years its gotten so bad that I've stopped taking that road all together
I call it death alley...never know if your car will make it from one end to other.
yea well us poor motorcycle and scooter riders that are looking for a shortcut are really in trouble!
what about the pot holes on south cushman st.??
Silly me---I thought that was Bently Lake. Is it stocked?
Who puts the snow there? You say private dump, does that mean 'leased' to the borough to store snow? Does that equate to the Borough damaging a private owned road? That hole has been there every year, it has gotten worse becasue of added water run off. Snow there every year and a pothole, a new carwash right next to it and a bigger problem that some of us have watched grow like a glacier at the intersection all winter waiting for summer to come just to see how bad it made things; but no, its not the new water source its the old one. Please. Before I get that bad taste in my mouth of misinformation could Dermot tell me if he is an engineer of if he consulted on in his analysis ' it appears to be the snow dump'.
Pothole, Pothole, Pothole. ARGH.
I been alooking and I don't see any Poooooothooooole!
My friend busted open his transmission oil pan on that hole a few years back. Bentley ended up paying to fix his car.
JB...the car wash is not the problem, that pothole has been there since at least 1994 when I first started driving in this town, back then it was Jefferys. Guess all the water from the dishes and the booze from the left over bottles was to accumulate the damage before right? The carwash has nothing to do with crappy intersection, or the huge pothole that has been there since Seekins first open his doors down there where the old blue building used to be.
Captain Nemo surfaced a few days ago from there, but had a Sea Kitten attached to him instead of a giant squid.
Maybe the road should stay closed until it is fixed properly instead of a bandaid every year.
Post a comment