This past summer the City of Homer Public Works Department completed the construction of a new road and water line in Homer between Lake Street and Heath Street.
The dirt path previously known as Waddell Way, is now renamed Grubstake, as an extension of Grubstake Avenue off of Heath Street.
Carey Meyer, the Public Works Director and City Engineer for the city of Homer says the street's name had to change.
“During any planning action, street names get discussed and the borough has the final say. Well since there were three roads in homer with the name Waddell, the borough decided that the community’s best interest, especially for emergency response vehicles, that we change the names,” said Meyer.
Meyer says that the new extension of Grubstake will help remove some of the congested traffic at the bottom of Heath Street.
A second road was also constructed, linking the road beside the post office to the new Grubstake extension. That road is named Snowbird Street. Meyer says that the connecting of the two roads will also help to ease some of the traffic around the post office.
Although the road has been officially open for driving for over a week, the painting of the road was delayed due to rain.
“The road’s striped with a rather new technology. It’s not painted; they actually ground a groove and filled that groove with paint. And so this process should last for at least ten years,” said Meyer.
The painting of the road was officially completed this week and now includes a sidewalk on one side, bike lanes on both sides, and LED street lights.
