(ANCHORAGE, Alaska) — Kenai residents will have a safer highway with a recently-awarded Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities (DOT&PF) construction contract for Phase II of the Kenai Spur Highway Rehabilitation Project. Work is scheduled to begin in Spring 2026 on the segment between Sports Lake Road and Swires Road, with substantial completion expected by June 2028.

The Kenai Spur Highway serves as a vital link between Kenai and Soldotna. The existing two-lane bottleneck in this section experiences crash rates above the statewide average and ranks second-highest in Alaska for moose collisions.

"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,” said DOT&PF Commissioner Ryan Anderson. “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 said, “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.”

This phase will transform approximately 5.7 miles of the aging two-lane corridor into a safer and more efficient five-lane highway. The design includes 12-foot through-lanes, a 14-foot continuous Two-Way Left-Turn Lane (TWLTL), and continuous lighting between Delta Avenue and Dolly Varden Street to fill the current gap and improve night-time visibility. Also included are culvert and guardrail replacements, pathway rerouting, driveway modifications, and targeted moose collision mitigation measures.

The $29M construction project lies within a portion of the 39-mile Kenai Spur Highway originally constructed in 1956 to connect Soldotna with Kenai and Nikiski. A 10-foot shared-use pathway was added to the west side of the highway in 2004.

# # #

The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities oversees 237 airports, 9 ferries serving 35 communities along 3,500 marine miles, over 5,600 miles of highway and 839 public facilities throughout the state of Alaska. The mission of the department is to “Keep Alaska Moving.”