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Alaska

Started by Bickendan, May 22, 2018, 03:01:33 PM

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roadman65

https://goo.gl/maps/tdmVrrsNcQuSP1k5A
Has anyone ever driven up to the spot in the image while clinching SR 11 in the process?
Every day is a winding road, you just got to get used to it.

Sheryl Crowe


oscar

#126
Quote from: roadman65 on May 09, 2023, 01:49:46 AM
https://goo.gl/maps/tdmVrrsNcQuSP1k5A
Has anyone ever driven up to the spot in the image while clinching SR 11 in the process?

I've driven past that point on one or both of my visits to Deadhorse (either on my way to the airport in 1994, or to refuel in 2012), though I don't remember the Peterbilt shop.

AK 11 ends before that point, at the Dalton Hwy/Lake Colleen intersection.
my Hot Springs and Highways pages, with links to my roads sites:
http://www.alaskaroads.com/home.html

Quillz

I know there's some point where there is no more public access, but I'm not sure if that station is part of the restrictions or not. If you want to get all the way to the Arctic Ocean, you have to arrange it with some tour companies (although it's pretty trivial to do). Generally a solo drive will consist of taking AK-11 to its actual northern end (very close to that spot), and then you can keep going to some small little motels in the area.

I've yet to do the whole thing solo but my goal is to finally do it next winter. (Been as far as the Arctic Circle sign). I was surprised at how easy the drive was, it wasn't at all the horribly dangerous drive that I was led to believe. (Frankly, other highways such as Steese were in much worse shape). Even in winter, was a pretty simple drive, the main rule being you just yield to any trucks that pass by. So I'm excited at the idea of finally getting the whole thing clinched. Been very interested in cresting the Brooks Range.

roadman65

Does Alaska have Moose Crossing signs on their desolate ( which is all rural highways there)?
Every day is a winding road, you just got to get used to it.

Sheryl Crowe

JayhawkCO

Quote from: roadman65 on May 09, 2023, 12:21:04 PM
Does Alaska have Moose Crossing signs on their desolate ( which is all rural highways there)?

Very often. On the drive back from Whittier to Cantwell, I counted 17 moose.

Alps

Quote from: roadman65 on May 09, 2023, 01:49:46 AM
https://goo.gl/maps/tdmVrrsNcQuSP1k5A
Has anyone ever driven up to the spot in the image while clinching SR 11 in the process?
Yes but it's not remarkable, why bring it up here

roadman65

I was noticing that Skagway is one of the few towns in Southeastern Alaska that is connected to the lower 48 by road. It lies at the southern terminus of AK 98 ( named for the 1898 gold rush) 15 miles south of Canada in the Skagway Valley in which the route follows.

Although the route doesn't connect to the rest of the state it connects to an orphaned section of Highway 2 in BC, as it intersects no other roads. Yukon is the only way to take a motor vehicle to the rest of Canada especially British Columbia from Hwy. 2. So both AK and BC are basically cut off from the rest of their territories by any road.

What I find interesting is the town itself.  It's small, near no cities and orphaned by land to the rest of their citizens. No major industry but tourism and fishing. A town that could most likely survive without state aid, with the exception of Highway 98 that is state funded hence the route designation.

I'm taking that the state DOT has a special unit assigned to just take care of AK 98 due to its isolation.
Every day is a winding road, you just got to get used to it.

Sheryl Crowe

oscar

Quote from: roadman65 on May 21, 2023, 07:47:43 PM
Although the route doesn't connect to the rest of the state it connects to an orphaned section of Highway 2 in BC, as it intersects no other roads.

Don't know what you mean by "orphaned". AK 98 connects to Yukon 2, including the part in BC. Same for the Haines segment of AK 7, which connects to the BC part of Yukon 3. Yukon and BC maintain other highways on each other's turf, especially the Alaska Highway which zigzags along the YT/BC border.

Quote
I'm taking that the state DOT has a special unit assigned to just take care of AK 98 due to its isolation.

Alaska DOT maintains lots of highways everywhere in the state, not just the handful that are assigned route numbers. These unnumbered highways include some in the Aleutians, Kodiak, and remote villages in western Alaska. So commonplace, they aren't "special".
my Hot Springs and Highways pages, with links to my roads sites:
http://www.alaskaroads.com/home.html

roadman65

Quote from: oscar on May 22, 2023, 01:52:51 AM
Quote from: roadman65 on May 21, 2023, 07:47:43 PM
Although the route doesn't connect to the rest of the state it connects to an orphaned section of Highway 2 in BC, as it intersects no other roads.

Don't know what you mean by "orphaned". AK 98 connects to Yukon 2, including the part in BC. Same for the Haines segment of AK 7, which connects to the BC part of Yukon 3. Yukon and BC maintain other highways on each other's turf, especially the Alaska Highway which zigzags along the YT/BC border.

Quote
I'm taking that the state DOT has a special unit assigned to just take care of AK 98 due to its isolation.

Alaska DOT maintains lots of highways everywhere in the state, not just the handful that are assigned route numbers. These unnumbered highways include some in the Aleutians, Kodiak, and remote villages in western Alaska. So commonplace, they aren't "special".

Orphaned meaning disconnected from other state roads. Not saying it does not connect to anything else. It's like I-15 being orphaned from the rest of Arizona despite driving through Utah or Nevada will still get you there.
Every day is a winding road, you just got to get used to it.

Sheryl Crowe

triplemultiplex

One of the things I'll always remember about Skagway was how slow the mobile data functioned when the cruise ships were in town. Basically not going to get anything but a plain text SMS out.  At least that was the case back when I was up there.  Perhaps they've upped their bandwidth since then.

Then I caught a dolly in the creek that flows in there. ;)
"That's just like... your opinion, man."

Kniwt

Anchorage Daily News reports that Denali Park Road will continue to be closed at Mile 43 until 2026.
https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/2023/06/05/denali-park-road-not-fully-reopening-until-2026-after-bridge-construction-pushed-back-a-year/

QuoteThe 92-mile road through Denali National Park and Preserve will remain closed near the halfway point for another three years due to newly discovered construction delays in the area of a treacherous landslide.

Park officials closed the Denali Park Road west of the Pretty Rocks Landslide in August 2021, saying it was no longer feasible to safely maintain. The road provides the only vehicular access into the 6-million-acre park. Buses carrying visitors into the park now turn around at Mile 43.

Road construction initially expected to wrap up in 2025 is now not expected to be complete until 2026. Park officials say the delay stems from a combination of a long winter that delayed the start of construction and the discovery that crews will need to extract more than two times as much clay as originally expected from the Pretty Rocks area.

The road began slumping in recent years at Mile 45 because of the landslide, which began moving more rapidly in 2014, amid increasing temperatures and heavy rainfall events.

Alex

Alaska will be getting two more DDI's.
The east end of Johansen Expressway at SR 2 (Steese Expressway) will be converted from an at-grade intersection. Here is the project web page.

Planners finalizing design for Fairbanks expressways' new intersection

QuoteA new $81 million intersection to improve traffic flow and safety is being designed for Fairbanks' Steese and Johansen Expressways.

The design has been scoped by Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities engineers since 2018, but requires local municipalities to grant the state planning authority. It's up for a public hearing this week before the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly, but it is missing a trail underpass the borough and other groups have asked for.

South into Anchorage, the diamond interchange joining SR 1 (Seward Highway) with O'Malley Road will be converted to a DDI. The project web page.

Set to start this summer, $130M Seward Highway project in South Anchorage faces renewed scrutiny

QuoteThe Anchorage Assembly and some community members want the state to reconsider a $130 million Seward Highway expansion project that has long been in the works.

After years of planning, construction on the O'Malley Road to Dimond Boulevard project is expected to start late this summer, with completion in 2025, state transportation planners say.

Plans for the 1.5-mile stretch of highway in South Anchorage include raising it to create a roundabout interchange linking Scooter Avenue with Academy Drive; adding the equivalent of two lanes with a new northbound lane plus frontage and ramp improvements; and constructing the state's second "diverging diamond"  interchange with criss-crossing lanes at the O'Malley underpass.

The first DDI in the state is located along SR 1 (Glenn Highway) at Muldoon Road.

Quillz

I've been on that DDI and it really does flow nicely. I'm familiar with that intersection in Fairbanks and it never struck me as terribly crowded, but any improvements are nice. Alaska in general seems to have a lot of really modernized junctions, which isn't something I was expecting given the low population. Lots of roundabouts in Anchorage, for example.

Road Hog

A relative of mine posted this very short Facebook video of an Alaskan highway, and I'm impressed at first glance of its engineering. Somewhere in the Fairbanks area is all I know. (She likes Filipino music loud, so apologies in advance)

https://www.facebook.com/cathy.spinks.1/videos/677289514292327

Quillz

That doesn't look like the Fairbanks area. Fairbanks is a subarctic area and doesn't really have the thick forest cover you see. That looks like somewhere well to the south. A street blade was seen but I couldn't make out the name. This might be the Richardson Highway heading southeast away from Fairbanks, as that reaches into the more boreal forest this looks like.

Alaska has pretty good roads in general. Anchorage utilizes a lot of roundabouts and I'm seeing diverging diamonds appear. For the most part, only the rural roads are unpaved. Most of the significant highways are paved and never give me any issues.

roadwaywiz95

For this upcoming weekend's Webinar presentation, we'll be taking a look at the highway system of the state of Alaska. We'll be taking some time to discuss our own experiences traveling across the state and highlighting our favorite drives and landmarks. Coverage will begin on Saturday (1/27) at 6 PM ET and will feature live contributions from members of this forum; we hope to see you there!

Clinched Counties: http://www.mob-rule.com/user-gifs/USA/roadwaywiz.gif
Clinched Interstates & Other Highways: https://travelmapping.net/shields/clinched.php?units=miles&u=roadwaywiz

@roadwaywiz on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitch, Spreadshirt, and Discord

Also at http://www.gribblenation.org/

Quillz

My tour guide on the Dalton Highway told me the numbers are mainly used by tourists, and rarely referenced by locals. He strangely wasn't even aware the Dalton Highway was AK-11 until I pointed it out.

What I was surprised to learn was for so few numbered highways, even Alaska had a renumbering at one point.

oscar

Quote from: Quillz on February 24, 2024, 06:05:08 AM
He strangely wasn't even aware the Dalton Highway was AK-11 until I pointed it out.

Route markers are sparse on that highway. At mile 0 (south end), around mile 60 (Yukon River area), mile 175 (Coldfoot), and mile 305 (Slope Mountain Camp). There is also a sign assembly near the north end (mile 416) that looks like it once had an AK 11 route marker.

With only one highway in that region, there is little danger of travelers getting lost.
my Hot Springs and Highways pages, with links to my roads sites:
http://www.alaskaroads.com/home.html

Great Lakes Roads

An update on the Seward Highway widening project between O'Mally Road to Dimond Boulevard.

Construction on this project has been pushed to at least 2027.

This additional time will be used to reevaluate the scope of the project and:

  • Update traffic projections
  • Coordinate timing with the AMATS Academy/Vanguard project
  • Reexamine the Diverging Diamond Interchange to determine if it is the best fit for the O'Malley interchange

Website link: https://www.sewardhighway.info/
-Jay Seaburg

CtrlAltDel

I didn't take too many road pictures while I was in Alaska, but I thought I'd share what I did:


A destination sign on the Seward Highway for some uncommon places, taken at the Portage station of the Alaska Railroad.


A rare route assembly on the Seward Highway in Anchorage. Curiously, while the route sign itself is a bit old, and attached with only one bolt, the direction banner is much newer.


An intersection sign for a street with a name long enough to require two sheets of metal to be bolted together.


And finally, an interesting sculpture made from old retroreflective road signs.
I-290   I-294   I-55   (I-74)   (I-72)   I-40   I-30   US-59   US-190   TX-30   TX-6

CtrlAltDel

And how could I have forgotten about Alaska's own Breezewood?  :-D

I-290   I-294   I-55   (I-74)   (I-72)   I-40   I-30   US-59   US-190   TX-30   TX-6

index

#146
I was in the Bristol Bay Borough for a summer job doing dock work in June, so here's some rare photos of the area roads (and associated topics). I did not have access to a car so some of these were the best I could do:

I wish I could've got more, but I got sick and was sent home two weeks in. They are pretty strict about that up there -- living quarters are cramped and illness spreads easily, so if you get sick for too long, they send you home to avoid everyone else getting sick and being put out of work.

Of the best pictures I got, I contributed them to some Wikipedia articles under a cc-0 license for various places in the borough, since pictures from the Alaskan Bush are few and far between, and of course, quite hard to get.


The road to Pederson Point. I hiked along this whole road with a few co-workers on an off day.


Suburban from the Bristol Bay Borough Fire Department.


Wooden bridge over King Salmon Creek.


Signage for the Alaska Peninsula Highway.





More photos from the aforementioned highway.


Random residential street.


A street blade in the Borough, surprised they're not the awful locally maintained types with the non-standard fonts.



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