Alaska's Dalton Highway Reopens
Alaska’s “road to the bank” is back in operation after an 18-day closing caused by flooding off the northern slope of the Brooks Range that occurred when mid-May temperatures hit 70 degrees and much of the spring break-up of ice happened suddenly.
The James Dalton Highway, or Route 11, reopened June 5 after engineers were able to divert water back into the Sagavanirktok, or Sag River, and then repair the northern stretch of the 414-mile road from Livengood, Alaska, northwest of Fairbanks, to Deadhorse, south of Prudhoe Bay.
Most of the road, 299 miles, is above the Arctic Circle. It’s a dirt road in the summer and ice during the long winter, said Meadow Bailey, spokeswoman for the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities.
Trucking companies use the Dalton, formerly called the North Slope Haul Road, to supply oil production facilities with food for workers and machinery and parts for operations.
“People driving this road are used to facing extreme conditions, and we rarely close it,” Baileys said. Record high temperatures, however, led to flows of water “on such a grand scale that no one had ever seen the likes of it before,” she said.
The state DOT said the road still is in rough condition and needs more work, but it is passable.
The road also was closed from April 5 to April 12 because of flooding.
The Dalton was covered by 2 feet of water in some places, said Nance Larsen, communications director for Anchorage-based Carlile Transportation.
“The road was washed out. It was an unprecedented closure. People had never seen it that way,” she said. "We’re very happy the road is open.”
Carlile runs 17 loads a day on the Dalton during the busy winter season.
“It’s a very remote place with extreme inclines, and weather always plays a factor. It’s not really a ‘highway’ despite its moniker,” Larsen said.
Bailey said the Dalton is particularly important to the state government.
“Ninety-three percent of the state’s budget comes from oil revenue. So for us, the Dalton is the road to the bank,” Bailey said.
The state DOT credited the Alaska Trucking Association, Carlile and several other companies for help in managing the problem.
Bailey said the Alaska association helped coordinate loads for travel once the road was reopened and for communicating with the state’s truck fleets.
Some oil companies with substantial engineering operations put culverts in place to allow for drainage.
The cost of responding to the April and June emergencies has been $15.5 million so far, the state DOT said.
A $27 million construction plan to raise the grade of the Dalton by 3 to 7 feet is being re-evaluated, Bailey said.
Carlile’s Larsen said the carrier runs vans, flatbeds and tank trucks northbound. There also are backhauls of trash, recyclables and used equipment.
Competing trucking companies displayed “unusual” cooperation when the road first reopened, she said. After staging materiel in Fairbanks, some of Carlile’s trucks headed north June 4 in order to hit the reopened stretch of the Brooks Range by June 5.
