alaska's highest bridge yet

Alaska's highest bridge yet is rising near Cooper Landing.

Crews are back at work this summer on the long-awaited Cooper Landing bypass, the project that reroutes the Sterling Highway around that famous summer traffic crawl. The centerpiece is a single-span steel bridge soaring over Juneau Creek Canyon. It's one of the biggest road projects in the whole state right now.

When it's done, it'll be the highest bridge in Alaska at about 285 feet, and the longest single-span bridge in the state. This summer, crews are focused on building that span out over the canyon.

The idea is to build it back from the canyon edge, then launch it across the gap. The bridge piece alone carries a price tag near 150 million dollars.

Now for the patience part. The full bypass isn't open to traffic until around 2032, and it still needs a lot more funding to finish. But if you've ever sat bumper to bumper heading to the Russian River, this is the fix you've been waiting on.