Here is a quick video from when Jack went through the cleared lane that the State of Alaska loader made after the avalanche on Atigun Pass. Don’t forget you can change the settings in the lower right hand corner if the video looks grainy.
Tag Archives: road hazard
Photos from the road closure, April 11th
These photos are from when Jack was stuck at the road closure. He was waiting there 3 days to get unloaded. As you can see, it was a beautiful couple of days, albeit cold ones. The rigs in the distance are tractor-like vehicles on tracks with tanks to take the fuel Jack and the other truckers are hauling back to Prudhoe. The road is now open during the day. Click on the first and scroll to the right. More info on the captions.
Jack finds a high perch to get a better view of the offloading up ahead.
He said this photo was an accident but I thought it was interesting since it shows what he was standing on.
Jack took a panoramic shot which makes it look like the road is curved. It’s actually straight.
Jack and several other truckers waited there over 70 hours.
What a beautiful day! A cold one though, since it was only about 10 degrees and the wind was brisk.
These tankers were running back and forth to Prudhoe, transferring the fuel the trucks are carrying while the road was closed.
Jack says each of these tankers on the left carry about 2500 gallons. He carries 10,000 if he is full.
This one can carry 2500 each tank.
Jack was hoping this guy was coming to unload him but no, he must have been going to fill up some other vehicles and equipment down the road.
More photos of the flooding
The last I heard from Jack he was still waiting to be offloaded. There are a few freight trucks showing up to wait for a chance to get through, but no fuel trucks will be allowed. Those will still be offloaded about 23 miles from Prudhoe.
The below photos are the last of what Jack took before the road closure, on the 1st and 2nd of April. It’s far from the worst of it. For the deepest water Jack experienced, click on “On a slow truck to Prudhoe” on the right.
There’s a lot of good information in this article and a couple of photos: http://www.newsminer.com/news/local_news/alaska-north-slope-truckers-in-limbo-as-dalton-highway-flood/article_311711ce-dff8-11e4-b9be-0bc49e932ff7.html
Update on Jack & the road
Jack was able to call and he is fine. The road is closed with no sign of being open soon. He is there with 4 or 5 other trucks waiting to get offloaded to a tractor-type vehicle with tracks. Jack described it like an International Harvester with triangle tracks. Several of them are running back and forth to Prudhoe, skirting the flooded area.
I was worried that there were more trucks all having to idle because it’s so cold but that’s not a concern. There are only a few trucks and some of them have generators so they don’t have to idle for cab heat. And someone brought them food and water some time ago. He’s not having fun, but he’s not too miserable either. It’s just a waiting game until he can get offloaded and head back (and then probably head right back up again).
Coldfoot was really busy when Jack went through on Thursday; no one else is being told to head up to Prudhoe except some fuel trucks. And no one is waiting on the Prudhoe side. They’ve all been told to go back. Many have been flown out and since resources are so short they are probably running essential personnel only.
Jack is a bit mad at himself for not leaving town more prepared. He had 3 gallons of water and some food which is almost gone. But no extra clothes and all kinds of other stuff it’d be nice to have like a laptop to watch movies on to help pass the time. He says the people who are handling this mess are working on putting systems in place to make everything more stream-lined, but at present it’s still a work in progress. This might be the new normal for a while. Everyone saw the water getting higher and higher and no one could do anything about it, like watching a slow motion disaster.
The below photos are from about 10 days ago when the road was still passable, but barely. The best way to view them is to click on the first one and scroll through.
On a slow truck to Prudhoe (deep water!)
Check out how deep the water is that’s coming from the Sag River and flooding the Dalton. Each truck is basically a slow moving island unto itself and if one were to break down, well, just don’t think about that. This was taken before the days-long closure of the road, a little over a week ago. The governor has declared a state disaster.
The Dalton has turned into a river!
The Sag River has turned the Dalton into one of it’s branches. This video was taken on the first day of April. Road conditions have been getting steadily worse. The road is currently closed because blowing snow is reducing visibility and they can’t see to clear the road.
More to come.
Before the road got really bad
You may already know that the Sag River has been overflowing the Dalton Highway about 20 miles from Prudhoe Bay. The below video shows what the road looked like about 2 weeks ago. Jack was riding into Prudhoe with someone else because his truck broke down. The river runs along the Dalton for a very long ways on the east side of the road.
A lot more to come!
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