Project should reduce congestion, ease commercial truck inspections; interim visitors center at Montgomery Gate
Fort Wainwright will temporarily relocate the Visitors Center at the Main Gate next week due to construction in that area.
Starting Monday July 22nd, visitors to Fort Wainwright will have to go to the Montgomery Gate off Badger Road to get a pass to enter the installation. The change will enable work at the main gate to aimed at better accommodating commercial truck inspections that can back up traffic.
“We have a lot of truck deliveries, both for the stores on post and as family members move in and out of on-post housing,” she said. “Y’know, furniture-delivery trucks, moving trucks. And they all need to be inspected before they enter the installation.”
Post spokesperson Eve Baker says trucks currently have to stop for inspection in one of the through lanes on Gaffney Road leading to the Main Gate.
“The new parking configuration will allow trucks to pull in and park,” she said.
The main gate Visitors Center will be closed so the contractor can enlarge the parking lot and relocate a doublewide modular that houses the center to the far side of the lot.
“We would like to be able to move trucks out of the main roadway while they’re being inspected so that there’s not any interference with smaller vehicles trying to access the installation,”she said.
The Main Gate itself will remain open 24/7 throughout the monthlong project. But Baker says there may be times when the contractor will need to slow or divert traffic, to enable trucks or equipment to move through the construction site. The project will include construction of a new gatehouse and a big canopy overhead to make work easier for the gate guards.
“Currently,” she said, “visitors just pull up to individual guard shacks, and there’s no protection from the weather for the guards or the vehicles, as their windows are down and it’s 30 or 40 below …”
While the work is under way, the temporary visitors center at the Montgomery Gate will be open from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. She cautions that the parking lot there is smaller than the one at the Main Gate, and that unlike the main gate visitors center, the temporary facility won’t be able to store personal weapons.
“So there’s not going to be temporary weapons storage at any of the gates,” she said. “So personal will have to leave their weapons entirely at home or at alternate locations.”
Baker says the project is scheduled to wrap up for the season on Aug. 22, but if it’s delayed, post officials will get the word out through social media and other outlets. She says final touches on the project will be done next summer.
