Dalton Highway

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The James W. Dalton Highway, usually referred to as the Dalton Highway (and signed as Alaska Route 11), is a Template:Convert<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> road in Alaska. It begins at the Elliott Highway, north of Fairbanks, and ends at Deadhorse (an unincorporated community within the CDP of Prudhoe Bay) near the Arctic Ocean and the Prudhoe Bay Oil Fields. Once called the North Slope Haul Road (a name by which it is still sometimes known), it was built as a supply road to support the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System in 1974. It is named after James W. Dalton, a lifelong Alaskan and an engineer Template:Cn span served as a consultant in early oil exploration in northern Alaska.<ref name="BLM2022"/> It is also the subject of the second episode of America's Toughest Jobs, seasons 3 and 4 of Ice Road Truckers and the first episode of the BBC's World's Most Dangerous Roads.<ref name="DangerousRoads">Template:Cite episode</ref> The road is about one-quarter paved and three-quarters gravel.Template:Fact

History

In 1966, Governor Walter J. Hickel opened the North Slope to oil extraction. To improve access to the oil fields, a Template:Convert winter road was planned between Livengood and Prudhoe Bay. Construction started in November 1968, and the "Walter J. Hickel Highway" was completed by March 1969. Due to poor engineering, the construction of the road exposed the underlying permafrost to thawing, and the road was abandoned by April of that year.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Maintenance was not performed as the route was farther west than the planned Trans-Alaska Pipeline System.<ref name=dot>Template:Cite book</ref>

Following the failure of the Hickel Highway, oil companies still needed a route to the North Slope. The Alyeska Pipeline Service Company funded what would be the first stretch of the Dalton Highway from Livengood to the Yukon River in 1969.<ref name=dot/>

Delays to the construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, and therefore the road, meant that work on it did not resume until April 29, 1974.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Within 5 months, Template:Convert of the road were built and construction was finished. The pipeline would not be completed until 1977.<ref name=dot/> It was initially known as the "Wales Highway".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In 1979, Alyeska turned over control of the road to the state of Alaska, who gave it the official name of "James W. Dalton Highway", named after the prospector of the North Slope, James W. Dalton. In 1981, the highway was opened to the public up to Disaster Creek at mile 211. In 1994, the public was allowed access to the entire length of the highway.<ref name=dot/>

Route description

The highway, which directly parallels the pipeline, is one of the most isolated roads in the United States. There are only three towns along the route: Coldfoot (pop. 34) at Mile 175,<ref name="milepost">Template:Cite book</ref> Wiseman (pop. 12) at Mile 188,<ref name="milepost" /> and Deadhorse (25 permanent residents, 3,500–5,000 or more seasonal residents depending on oil production) at the end of the highway at Mile 414.<ref name="milepost" /> Fuel is available at the E. L. Patton Yukon River Bridge (Mile 56), as well as Coldfoot and Deadhorse.<ref name="milepost" /> Two other settlements, Prospect Creek and Galbraith Lake, are uninhabited except for campers and other short-term residents.

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Despite its remoteness, the Dalton Highway carries a good amount of truck traffic through to Prudhoe Bay: about 160 trucks daily in the summer months and 250 trucks daily in the winter.<ref name="milepost" /> Template:Cn span

Template:As of,Template:Update inline Template:Convert of the highway are paved, in several sections, between the following mileages: 19 and 24; 37 and 50; 91 and 111; 113 and 197; 257 and 261; 344 and 352; and 356 and 361.Template:Fact

Truckers on the Dalton have given their own names to its various features, including: Taps, The Shelf, Franklin Bluffs, Oil Spill Hill, Beaver Slide, Surprise Rise, Sand Hill, Ice Cut, Gobbler's Knob, Finger Mountain, Oh Shit Corner,<ref name="OhShit3">Template:Google maps</ref> and the Roller Coaster. The road reaches its highest elevation as it crosses the Brooks Range at Atigun Pass at Template:Convert.

The highway is the featured road on the second (episode 7), third, fourth, fifth and sixth seasons of the History reality television series Ice Road Truckers, which aired May 31, 2009, to November 9, 2017. It is also the subject of the second episode of America's Toughest Jobs and the first episode of the BBC's World's Most Dangerous Roads featuring Charley Boorman and Sue Perkins.<ref name="DangerousRoads"/> Polar bears are known to traverse the Arctic region of Alaska and can be seen wandering the outskirts of Deadhorse at the terminus of the Dalton Highway.

Floodings of the Sagavanirktok River, combined with melting of nearby ice roads under warmer climatic conditions have forced weeks-long closures of the road and the need for significant repairs, costing several million US dollars.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2018, a Template:Convert section of the Dalton was moved to avoid a debris flow known as "the blob." A roughly Template:Convert long lobe of dirt, ice, and trees, the blob threatened to bulldoze the section of the road Template:Convert north of Fairbanks in the next three or four years at a speed of Template:Convert per year. It will likely have to be moved again in the next 20 years before the blob can threaten it again. Truckers were directed to a new gravel road that avoided the landslide.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Major intersections and other features

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Gallery

Dalton Highway south of the Continental Divide in the summer
Dalton Highway passing Sukakpak Mountain in the summer
The Brooks Range south of the Continental Divide near Atigun Pass (6 March 2013)
The Brooks Range north of the Continental Divide (Atigun Pass), mile 256
View of tundra in the summer from Dalton Highway, North Slope Borough, Alaska
Muskox (Ovibos moschatus), Dalton Highway (Hwy 11) North Slope Borough, Alaska (10 August 2010)
Wolf photographed from the Dalton Highway, North Slope Borough, Alaska (10 May 2016)
Aerial view of the highway with the Trans-Alaska Pipeline in the background (14 April 2015)
Highway about 10 miles south of Deadhorse, North Slope Borough, Alaska (5 April 2015)
Highway sign in the snow, North Slope Borough, Alaska (17 April 2015)
Winter conditions on the Dalton Highway (April 2016)