From the 'Wish We Had A Helicopter' school of photography

Street view of the new Elmore Road roundabout.

Here is the Elmore Road roundabout, unveiled late Monday. This photo was snapped by our friend Ryan Buchholdt in Facilities from the University Lake Building parking lot on the east side of Elmore Road, showing the street-level view of the roundabout. Thank you, Ryan!

Ryan says traffic has been increasing along this stretch of Elmore as more and more folks realize it is once again open and linking traffic between Tudor Road and Providence Drive.

If you happen to fly over, snap us a shot and we'll post it here. A bird's eye view might be easier to fully absorb the addition of the roundabout and how it affects movement along Elmore.

Use Elmore Road to get to work tomorrow! It re-opens after 6 p.m. Monday 9/16

Thank you, Sun.

The sunny weather the last few days has helped.

And now, the word is OFFICIAL:

Elmore Road, with its new roundabout, will re-open Monday, Sept. 16 after 6 p.m., once again linking Tudor Road to Providence Drive via Elmore Road. This makes access to UAA dorms, APU, Alaska Public Media and the Alaska Native Medical Center campus easier for everyone.

That means you can use it tomorrow in your morning commute.

Just for fun, we have a very unofficial countdown clock running at this link. And as soon as we get one, we'll post a shot of what the roundabout looks like.

Thanks for your patience, everyone.

Oh, Elm-o-o-o-o-o-ore! When will you re-open?

Sunshine, Sat+Sun+Mon.

The secret to that puzzle is the weather. As we have posted here earlier, our very wet August and September slowed down road construction projects, not just for UAA, but for the whole city.

On the bright side, take a look at the weather forecast for the next few days. If we are in for some good dry weather, as it appears we are, then much progress will be made.

A check with UAA Facilities indicates that the news is promising. The Elmore Road roundabout construction team has  poured the last bit of concrete today, and must pave the sidewalks in the area. If the weather cooperates, the odds are looking good that work could be complete by Sunday. We aren't promising that, but we have fingers and toes crossed that the sun will stick with us for a few days and let this work proceed quickly.

In other news, in an effort to utilize some of the very unused parking on campus, the UAA Alumni Association offered to host free coffee and morning treats for three mornings in the Fine Arts parking lot,

Wet weather delays Elmore re-opening; more parking coming online in South Lot Sept. 10

Elmore closure extended into the week

The Elmore closure, which was originally scheduled to finish on Monday, Sept. 2, is being extended into this week. The completion date is dependent on weather and availability of paving crews. The rainy weather has delayed paving projects across the city.

South Lot parking status; adding 60 more spaces by Sept. 10

The temporary staging yard for the new engineering building, across Providence at the SE corner of Lake Otis and 36th, is expected to be complete and ready for use on Monday, Sept. 9. This will allow the engineering building contractor, Neeser Construction, to relocate some of their equipment from South Lot to the temporary yard—and free up more parking in South Lot.

The fence around the building site will be pulled in, returning an additional row of parking, by the morning of Tuesday, Sept. 10 (maybe as soon as late in the day on the Sept. 9).

North Lot parking status

Facilities Maintenance & Operations will begin to move the remainder of their equipment out of North Lot on Tuesday, Sept. 10; it will take several days but this will free up more parking spaces.