Tag Archives: road

A Glorious Morning on the Road

An amazing thing happened when I was on the road with Jack one time.

We woke up at what the truckers call 62 Mile, a good-sized pullout used by truckers and tourist buses and just anyone traveling the road.  It was Pink Birch Tree on the Daltonlate September and the drive up north had been sunny and crispy cool.  I could not have gotten luckier on a time to be on the Haul Road.   Orange and yellow autumn colors abounded and even a pink birch tree showed up every so many miles.  (Click to enlarge.)

Tourists on the Dalton HighwayNo snow had fallen, but when we woke up that morning at 62 Mile the tundra outside was a winter wonderland.  There were tourists milling about, gazing at the frosty grasses that surround the pull out.

Tourists on the Dalton HighwayAnd as you can see, there was a long line at the restroom, so I decided to take a walk out onto the tundra, and I’m so glad I did.

I discovered frost-covered fireweed, spider webs glinting in the morning light, and best of all, an absolutely stunning mist rainbow.  I hadn’t known they even existed before, but now I have proof they do.  As the frost was evaporating off the tundra, the water vapor in the air created a rainbow that shimmered in the sun’s light.  As I stood watching, the sunlight slowly burned off the frost on the ground, leaving plants thawed on one side and still frozen on the other, and the glorious rainbow eventually faded away with the warmth of day.

A moment of astounding beauty.  Luckily, I took a quick video and lots of photos, some of which may give an inkling of how amazing that morning was.  If anyone ever tells you that the arctic tundra is a frozen wasteland with no redeeming qualities, here is proof that it is not true.

(Click on the first one and scroll to the right.)

 

https://youtu.be/JeI3ikTwrkk

 

Huge mod is pushed up “Koyukuk”

The hill that drivers call “Koyukuk” is right next to the Koyukuk River and it’s one of the steepest on the Dalton.  It’s about 30 miles south of Coldfoot.  The video was taken last winter.

Jack happened to be there to document this huge mod being pushed up the hill by push trucks and also being steered from the back because it’s so long.  If you look close you can see someone standing outside on the load as it goes up the hill – he’s steering the rear end as it goes around the curves.  The guy doing the steering is one of the former owners of Carlile and he comes up the Dalton for these types of loads that need some special care.  (Carlile was sold to Saltchuk Corporation a while ago.)

In case you are wondering, the truck is going pretty slow, about 5 miles an hour in 3rd gear.  The last thing you ever want to do, Jack says, is change gears when you’re going that slow with that much weight since you’ll stop before you get it into a different gear.  If you stop it’ll take a while to get going again and without the momentum you’re putting a lot of strain on the truck and there’s too much potential for breaking something.  The years Jack spent in heavy haul were great years he says, but he doesn’t miss it.

 

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

Here are the last of the photos from when Jack was leaving Prudhoe Bay on June 6th.  There’s more info on the captions. Click on the first one and scroll to the right.

The top is the berm that was created in hopes of keeping the river back and the gap underneath is from where water was flowing.
The remnant on top of the hole was snow pushed up into a berm to try to stop the water flow.
This is the west side of the road, not the Sag River to the east.
East side where the river is, still partly frozen.
A big chunk of grounded river ice in the background.
The Sag in the background.
Eroded road and the pipeline is buried right there.
Staged culverts, but not needed. Probably 40 feet long.
Those white broken pieces are foam board insulation used to prevent the ground ice from melting if it is exposed for some reason. They are now trash.
Another section of reconstructed road.
These concrete forms were originally used to weigh down the pipeline as it was laid, in the 1970s, so that it wouldn’t move or float away, but aren’t needed when the oil is flowing.
Here they’re being used as erosion control for the natural gas line that runs from Prudhoe to Pump Station 4.
Waiting as material gets laid.
Staged culverts, probably not needed.
A Kenworth logo on Jack’s steering wheel thrown in for good measure.

Dalton Highway road construction – June 6 (2 of 3)

Here are more photos from when Jack was leaving Prudhoe on June 6th.  There’s more info on the captions. Click on the first one and scroll to the right.

The gap on the right between the tundra and the road used to be road.
This gravel was part of the old road.
The trench where the fiber optic cable is was eroded.
This is where the river normally is.
More wash out.
The mile marker had a rough time of it.
Old gravel, for the new road.
Gearing up for road “reconstruction”.
The start of the new gravel pit, for the new road job.
Equipment in front of the gravel pit.
The top is what’s left of the berm that was created a while ago and the gaps underneath are where the river was flowing.
You can see one of the trenches that were created in hopes of reigning in the river, in the background to the left.
The right side of the road has been eroded. More on the next post.

Unbelievable flooding photos from ADN

From Alaska Dispatch News:

Loren Holmes / ADN
Loren Holmes / ADN
Loren Holmes / ADN
Loren Holmes / ADN
Loren Holmes / ADN
Loren Holmes / ADN
Loren Holmes / ADN
Loren Holmes / ADN
Loren Holmes / ADN

DEADHORSE — Unprecedented flooding continues to interfere with daily operations on the North Slope oil patch after surging waters wiped away swaths of the Dalton Highway and isolated a section of Deadhorse, the jumping-off point for the sprawling industrial region.

“This is just epic,” said Mike Coffey, commander of the unified incident command, a response team consisting of the state, the North Slope Borough and oil companies. “People who have been here for decades say they’ve never seen anything like it.”

The state has estimated the costs of the damage and repairs since March at $5.1 million. The federal government may pay for much of that, since the icing and flooding on the highway has been declared a disaster, said Coffey, the director of state transportation maintenance and operations.

 

You can see more photos and get a lot of more info from the article:  http://www.adn.com/article/20150521/epic-flooding-dalton-highway-hinders-north-slope-oil-operations

 

The road is officially washed out now

Another jarring image from Alaska Department of Transportation.  The road is definitely washed out now.  Yikes!

Dalton Highway washed outhttp://dot.alaska.gov/nreg/dalton-updates/

And here is another link for tons of photos and videos from AK DOT & PF:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/akdotpf/sets/72157651922122696/with/16982351150/

 

Aerial photos of the road closure from Alaska DOT

Jack said “Holy Sh**!” when he looked at the Alaska Department of Transportation page today.  Not because of the photos of the road flooding but when he saw this:

2015: Dalton Highway 401-414 Reconstruction, will start this summer and is a two year project. Construction contract award is $27 million. The scope of the project is to reconstruct the Dalton Highway from Mile Post 401-414, improvements include raising the grade seven feet, replacing culverts and surfacing the road.

2016: Dalton Highway 379-401 Reconstruction, scheduled for construction in 2016, estimated cost is $40-50 million. The scope of the project is to reconstruct the Dalton Highway from Mile Post 379-401, improvements including raising the grade seven feet, replacing culverts and surfacing the road.

This will raise the road 7 feet above the tundra, so when someone goes off the road, it will be a lot bigger deal.  Here is the link for that Alaska DOT page:  http://dot.alaska.gov/nreg/dalton-updates/

Here are two aerial photos of the flooding, both from the Alaska DOT webpage.  Click on the photos for more info on the captions.

On the left you can see the remnants of a berm that was created by excavators to hopefully hold the water back and direct it away from the road. But the water has now spilled over the road and broken through the berm. You can also see how the road is washing away. From AK DOT webpage.
On the top of the photo are more berms that were created to direct the water away from the road. From AK DOT webpage.

Video from right before current road closure

This is a video from trucker John Slater that shows how the Dalton looked last Saturday.  The road is now closed because of the overflowing Sag River making it impassable once again.  See prior posts for more info.

https://youtu.be/p9O2ca5WfNE

 

 

Cleared lane through avalanche blockage

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.