After that northernmost section, though, the road gets pretty rough. Too rough for some.

Anchor Point resident Carla Armstrong is leading an effort to petition local legislators to take action. She said that the state-owned road was bad enough before the state made things worse this summer in a botched effort to cure the roadway with calcium chloride.

Conditions are now terrible whenever it rains, Armstrong said.

"At one point in the '80s, it was the best gravel road on the peninsula. But it's been washed away," she said. "Now, when it rains, it creates this oozing, gooey funk slop."

Armstrong said residents of Hidden Hills and Epperson Knob subdivisions became irate and flooded Sen. Gary Stevens' and Rep. Paul Seaton's offices with calls. Staffers told them that signatures work better, so they drafted a formal complaint.

"We are no longer tolerant of the conditions of this road," said Armstrong, reading a section of the letter aloud.

As of Monday night, residents had collected about 40 signatures on the letter. Armstrong said her goal is to get the project listed on Alaska's Statewide Transportation Improvements Program -- or STIP -- list.

"They haven't really heard from us in a while, so it's time," she said.

Armstrong and others will have a better chance for success if they work with local government to bring their concerns to state officials, said Todd Vanhove, a Kenai Peninsula area planner with the state transportation department.

Communities outside of municipalities' jurisdictions often take grievances to borough authorities, who can then pick up the torch and help, he said.

"That really helps the project score, if you've got the borough behind it and the community behind it," Vanhove said.

The state, however, has had to cut back on road spending, partly the result of budget problems. It has become more of a fight to get project funding in recent years.

"Now we're only able to fund projects that score really high," he said.

Anchor Point firefighter Bob Craig said that the road has developed a bit of a reputation among emergency responders.

"Sometimes it gets pretty slick" when it rains, he said. "We usually hear somebody get on the airwaves and say, 'Look out, it's kind of greasy out there.'"

Larry Fielding is the branch manager at Laidlaw Transit, which runs a school bus on North Fork Road twice a day. He says that the road, while in bad condition, hasn't gotten to the point where it's as bad as East End Road, currently under construction.

"It is a washboard, and we just have to slow down," he said.

Chris Eshleman can be reached at chris.eshleman@homernews.com