Here’s two 2-minute clips of a section of the road that is about 130+ miles from Fairbanks. At the beginning, Jack passes by Chucky’s Corner on the right. Chucky was a trucker who lost his life on that corner and it’s memorialized with the name, and the cross.

Bizarre convoy of track rigs

Apr28

Travel to another planet with Jack when he drives by one otherworldly track rig after another. This might be the best video yet so don’t give up half way through when there’s a lull in the traffic…there are more of these crazy rigs coming! (There’s music but it’s quiet at the beginning.)

Dalton Highway road construction – June 6 (1 of 3)

Jun8

The first ten or so of these photos are from when Jack drove into Prudhoe Bay June 6th. The rest are from when he was leaving Prudhoe about 4 hours later. The place is barely recognizable. There’s more info on the captions. Click on the first one and scroll to the right.

The original road goes straight – the detour is to the right.

This is wash out between the original road and the detour road.

You can see the delineator marking the right side of the old road, on the far left in the photo.

Now you can see new culverts and the orange fiber optic cable that ran along the old road, now exposed.

The window is up, sorry. The old road was right there where that big hole is.

Those are culverts (on the left) that were used to try to save the road, but they didn’t work.

They used super sacks (on the left, big white sand bags) to line the road while they filled it in. It was eaten away though as evidenced by the collapsed tundra. Water started eroding the tundra and exposed layers of ice.

This tundra was supported by ice that has been eroded/melted.

Looking south at the end of the detour.

Now Jack is heading out of Prudhoe with the detour to the left.

Motorcycle tourists are common even this early in the season.

The water from the Sag River eroded ice and material from under the road.

Here is the orange fiber optic cable that was buried next to the old road with a layer of ice behind it. Prehistoric ice, that is.

Layers of ice under the tundra.

On the left, the Sag River, the culprit.

The base of this building was underwater a short time ago.

Just snow that hasn’t melted yet.

Melt water that has frozen over night.

On the right, that gap between the road and the tundra used to be road.

The pieces of 4x4 at the ends of the crumpled culverts are used for marking the ends.

The pieces of 4×4 at the ends of the crumpled culverts are used for marking the ends.

Gravel from the old road on top of tundra on top of ice. More on the next post.

The Dalton Highway is passable once again

Jun5

From the Alaska Department of Transportation website:

The first vehicles traveling south on the Dalton Highway, Mile 413. ADOT&PF photo. (CLICK TO ENLARGE)

(PRUDHOE BAY, Alaska) – The Dalton Highway has reopened to traffic after an 18-day closure caused by massive spring breakup flooding.

Traffic began moving on the road at 8 a.m. this morning. The highway is open to two-way traffic, but drivers will encounter a section with flaggers and pilot car at Mile 412-414. The road remains in rough condition through the flood zone at Miles 392-414, with multiple narrow sections and an uneven surface. Drivers are urged to travel slowly and watch for signs.

The reopening of the highway marks a milestone for the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (ADOT&PF), which has been handling the Dalton flood response since the initial overflow problems in March. The cost of this spring’s emergency response totals $15.5 million.

Flooding on the section of highway south of Deadhorse began in mid-March when overflow from the Sagavanirktok (Sag) River began spilling onto the highway. River aufeis accumulated in the bottom of the shallow and braided river and pushed the flowing water to the top, though temperatures in the area remained below freezing.

For more go to http://dot.alaska.gov/comm/pressbox/arch_2015/PR15-2534.shtml#

Dalton Highway, April 16th & 17th

Apr26

These photos are the last of the ones Jack took from when the road was in bad condition. It’s much improved now, to the point where Jack says there’s nothing to take photos of. When the melt starts up there though, who knows what will happen.

April 16th, Jack is heading out of Prudhoe. It was a cloudy morning.

The excavator is moving snow and slush away from the road to keep the water flowing to where they want it to go.

That’s all trucks waiting to get into Prudhoe.

This is the next day, heading back into Prudhoe.

These excavators are digging ditches and creating berms to hold the water back. Overflow from the Sag River has been harassing truckers and the State of Alaska for weeks before this.

Jack says this guy is scraping back the ice to find the road.

The delineator is about 5 feet tall so this shows how high the water got before it froze.

This photo is grainy, but you can see the left delineators showing a lot more than the others.

Heavy Equipment (one that floats!)

Apr20

Here are the rest of the photos from when Jack drove through the flooded area, the portion of the road that was recently closed because of the overflow of the Sag River onto the Dalton. There is a HUGE tracked vehicle that Jack says can float! I can’t see how that’s possible but supposedly, if it breaks through the ice, it won’t sink to the bottom of whatever it is on. In his case it’s a matter of a few feet to the ground. But it’s just hard to imagine either way.

Click on the first one and scroll to the right.

Jack is heading toward Prudhoe so the Sag River overflow is coming from the right.

This is the tracked vehicle that Jack says can float. He called it an excavator with float tracks but it probably has a specific name.

You can see multiple berms created by the excavators.

This plowing equipment is the State of Alaska’s – they are still there plowing the road. They take care of the road and the private contractors take care of the flooding.