Alaska Business 3

[Alps]

If anyone has been to the Anchorage area since the 3 freeway was extended, have you had a chance to see Business 3?  (I only saw one shield on a ramp.)  Is it an official state highway or only signed locally?  If it's official, what is the official routing - otherwise, how far is it signed?

[Fcexpress80]

I'm not familiar with this highway.  Most of Alaska knows the highways there by their names:  Glenn, Seward, Minnesota Drive are three Anchorage divided highways.  The Glenn Highway is part of the unsigned Interstate A1 corridor and the Seward Highway is part of the I-A3 corridor to the Kenai Peninsula (Soldotna).  I have not been to Alaska recently so this info may be dated.

[oscar]

I was up there this June.  There are two Business 3 signs, both on Trunk Road near its interchange with the Parks Highway freeway (state route 3).  They indicate that Business 3 follows the frontage roads on each side of the freeway north from Trunk Road.  However, there is no indication of where Business 3 ends on each side of the freeway, such as reassurance or "end" shields on the frontage roads, or junction signs at the next interchanges to the north. 

Alaska DOT&PF's route logs don't indicate the extent of Business 3 (nor do they delineate where other numbered routes begin and end -- the logs are organized by highway/road name, the only route numbers are internal six-digit inventory numbers).  I don't recall either of the frontage roads (each a named road) showing up in the route logs, which include all roads maintained by Alaska DOT&PF and many that aren't.

I looked at the back of one of the Business 3 shields, suspecting that the signs might be unofficial.  But it had an Alaska DOT&PF sticker, indicating the sign was erected in 2004.

Business 3 remains a mystery.  And I haven't seen any other signed business routes elsewhere in Alaska where one might expect them if there were any, such as along the old Richardson Highway through downtown Copper Center, or the fragments of the old Glenn Highway through Palmer and Eagle River.

[Alps]

I was up there this June.  There are two Business 3 signs, both on Trunk Road near its interchange with the Parks Highway freeway (state route 3).  They indicate that Business 3 follows the frontage roads on each side of the freeway north from Trunk Road.  However, there is no indication of where Business 3 ends on each side of the freeway, such as reassurance or "end" shields on the frontage roads, or junction signs at the next interchanges to the north. 

Alaska DOT&PF's route logs don't indicate the extent of Business 3 (nor do they delineate where other numbered routes begin and end -- the logs are organized by highway/road name, the only route numbers are internal six-digit inventory numbers).  I don't recall either of the frontage roads (each a named road) showing up in the route logs, which include all roads maintained by Alaska DOT&PF and many that aren't.

I looked at the back of one of the Business 3 shields, suspecting that the signs might be unofficial.  But it had an Alaska DOT&PF sticker, indicating the sign was erected in 2004.

Business 3 remains a mystery.  And I haven't seen any other signed business routes elsewhere in Alaska where one might expect them if there were any, such as along the old Richardson Highway through downtown Copper Center, or the fragments of the old Glenn Highway through Palmer and Eagle River.

Oscar, thanks for your thorough report.  My suspicion is that this isn't so much Business Route 3 as How to Get to Route 3 Businesses.  I don't recall seeing frontage roads on the other Anchorage-area freeways (not that I saw them on the Parks either).

[oscar]

Steve, "My suspicion is that this isn't so much Business Route 3 as How to Get to Route 3 Businesses" seems an excelllent way to describe the situation.  Thanx!

I think you're also right that the route 3 frontage roads are the only ones in Alaska, so it would make sense that such Business markers would appear only along route 3(though that doesn't explain why there are no similar markers at route 3's two other interchanges, which also have frontage road junctions).