A year ago the state Department of Transportation and Public Facilities had a new median constructed in Fairbanks along College Road from near Costco to Illinois Street, a project that made the road safer for all.

A fatal car accident in 2012 and other accidents over the years led to this highway safety improvement project.

Here is the 2017 study that preceded construction by three years. With the expansion of businesses along that section of road, the area had become more and more hazardous.

But now the state has opted to insert a new left-turn lane in the median because a single land owner complained about limiting access to businesses on their properties, a project that will make the road more dangerous for all.

Sexton Developments LLC, which owns the land underneath the gas station, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and the Ajmi restaurant complained after the fact, once the federal highway safety money was spent and the median was in place.

The owners of the businesses on those lots did not protest the median plans when they were contacted. The tenants are under long-term contracts, 10 years or more. But Sexton Developments said the new access, requiring a U-turn at the College/Ilinois traffic light, was inconvenient for customers trying to get access to the businesses.

The new plan is not as safe as the median constructed last summer, the property owners were told.

Because of what appears to me to be political pressure, the state has decided to rip up part of the median to allow westbound traffic to turn left at a gap that would allow access to the businesses on the Sexton Developments lots and to the Regency Court Mall, owned by Bill Vivlamore.

Ryan Anderson, regional director of the transportation department, denies that there was political pressure from above. “We go through funding approval processes that include the Commissioner’s Office. The regions put in a request and they are approved or denied. This request was approved,” he said.

The Dunleavy administration should admit to the federal authorities that at least some of the money spent last year should be returned to Uncle Sam.

The new project is expected to cost from $100,000 to $250,000 in state funds, being used because federal highway officials will obviously look askance at redoing a highway safety project that increases traffic hazards.

Here is the 2021 study that followed the complaints from Sexton Developments. The proposal to make the road more hazardous, with a left turn lane for westbound College Road traffic, is shown below.

The plan is to build it to “discourage” left-hand turns from the driveways of the businesses onto College Road.