Work planned on dangerous stretch of Alaska Highway in Whitehorse

The Yukon government is moving ahead with plans to make the Alaska Highway safer near the Whitehorse airport.

Residents in Whitehorse's Hillcrest neighbourhoodhave complained for years about dangerous conditions for cyclists and pedestrians trying to cross the highway.

"The problem is that right now, there's no way to get across the highway safely," said Shaunagh Stikeman, a board member ofHillcrest Community Association.

"We don't have any traffic lights. We don't have any crosswalks. The only way to get across the highway right now is to do the chicken run and dodge cars."

The plan from the territory's Department of Highways and Public Works would close two intersections, build a new road for business access and install traffic lights at Wasson Place and Hillcrest Drive.

The department refused to release a detailed sketch of the plan ahead of a public meeting set for Wednesday.

Worries road will be too wide

Stikemansaid residents are glad to see new intersections and traffic lights.

But Stikemansaid she's worried the upgraded highway will be too wide between Hillcrest and an intersection upgraded at Range Road, approximately a kilometre away.

"We are concerned that the traffic lights are attached to a plan [calling] for a six-lane highway going through our neighborhood."

Paul Murchison, director of the Yukon government's transportation engineering branch, said the extra lanes are similar to existing intersections, such as the one at the Alaska Highway and Robert Service Way, that are designed tolet faster cars pass slow trucks and turn more safely.

"Certainly there are additional lanes but those acceleration [and] deceleration lanes they terminate after you get away from the intersections."

Murchison said the department plans to improve existing cycling trails and build new ones. It will also proposereducing the speed limit near the airport to 60 km/h.

Construction is scheduled to begin in the spring of 2020.The department is holding a public meeting on its plans Wednesday evening at the Yukon Transportation Museum.