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.
Talk about poor road conditions! This was about a week ago, before the road closure. Jack has been told the road will be open tomorrow so he is on his way up. So sorry to all those who’ve been stuck on the non-home side.
Trucks in this video are going really slow as there’s a layer of glare ice underneath them. At the end you can see a wave that’s being created by moving trucks.
(Don’t forget you can change the resolution on a YouTube video if it looks blurry, “settings” in the lower right hand corner.)
Department of Transportation and Public Facilities photo via Alaska Dispatch News
Governor Walker declared the situation on the Dalton Highway a state disaster.
According to Alaska Dispatch News, this will enable the state to bring up private contractors to help. 700 to 800 loads are backed up in Fairbanks. Jack is on his way up there right now. Check out this article, it shows some aerial footage of the road.
https://www.adn.com/article/20150408/dalton-highway-ice-sheet-alaska-gov-walker-declares-disaster
Here’s another video showing water from the Sag River flowing over the Dalton.
And this one shows how the splashing of water has created ice ridges on either side of a flowing area. Trucks drive over the water and it sprays up and freezes on either side, so now there is a huge dip in the road. The bottom of the dip is the actual road. Some people were saying the road has washed out but Jack says no, it’s ice ridges building up and making it looking like a portion of the road has washed out.
(Don’t forget, YouTube automatically picks a low resolution so if you want a clearer picture click on the lower right hand side icon called “settings” and pick a higher number.)
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.
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!
The Sag River has been overflowing its banks this past month. So much so that it has been giving the truckers and the State (of Alaska) a bit of a headache. The photos below are from about 10 days ago and a lot more drama has happened since. We’ll have updated photos for you in a couple of days.
The Sag River follows the Dalton Highway for quite a few miles during the last 100 miles of the road, when you’re nearing Prudhoe. So when we say it
The Sag River runs along the Dalton Highway for about 100 miles.
is overflowing near the road it could be happening at many different spots, and it is doing just that. According to Jack, overflows are normal but this river overflowing in this area is an unprecedented occurrence since he has not known for it to have ever happened before. No one he’s talked to has either. It’s not an uncommon thing for rivers to do though.
All the talk now is if the State will be able to handle the situation when actual break up occurs. Temperatures are still well below zero pretty much all the time right now so we haven’t seen the worst of it. The question is, what’s going to happen during break up when everything starts to really melt?
Click on the first photo and scroll through to see them full size with explanations.
How did this fuel truck get so far off the road? Jack didn’t ask, he just pulled him back onto it.
(Logo was removed from side of tank.) Click to enlarge.
The Dalton claims another truck!
Jack calls this kind of trailer a bulker. It carries dry powders like concrete, sand, or ammonium nitrate. This one probably carried concrete or sand. He says they use air to transfer the product from one place to another. Unloading a bulker is called “blowing it off” to the people who do it. In Prudhoe they store the product in silos.
Don’t forget you can increase the resolution on a YouTube video by clicking on the settings symbol in the lower right hand corner and choosing a higher number than what YouTube picked for you.
A few years ago a truck engine spontaneously caught fire. It was an electrical issue with the truck. It had popped a breaker and when the breaker was flipped back, the fire started. That’s what is thought to have happened. In the photos you can only see smoke, and the Fairbanks Fire Department working to put it out. We can imagine it was some seriously toxic smoke, as it is anytime a vehicle catches fire. The Carlile employees including Jack moved the vehicles that were next to it immediately but couldn’t do anything about the fire.
(For those of you lucky souls who don’t have to deal with the cold temperatures, trucks and all vehicles are plugged in before driving to heat up the oil and anti-freeze.)
Click a photo to see it full size, then scroll through.
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