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=                           Alaska Highway                           =
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                             Introduction                             
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The Alaska Highway (; also known as the Alaskan Highway,
Alaska-Canadian Highway, or ALCAN Highway) was constructed during
World War II to connect the contiguous United States to Alaska across
Canada. It begins at the junction with a few Canadian highways in
Dawson Creek, British Columbia, and runs to Delta Junction, Alaska,
via Whitehorse, Yukon. When it was completed in 1942, it was about
2700 km long, but in 2012, it was only 2232 km. This is due to the
realignments of the highway over the years, which has rerouted and
straightened many sections. The highway opened to the public in 1948.
Once legendary for being a rough, challenging drive, the highway is
now paved over its entire length. Its component highways are British
Columbia Highway 97, Yukon Highway 1, and Alaska Route 2.

An informal system of historic mileposts developed over the years to
denote major stopping points. Delta Junction, at the end of the
highway, makes reference to its location at "Historic Milepost 1422".
It is at this point that the Alaska Highway meets the Richardson
Highway, which continues 155 km to the city of Fairbanks. This is
often regarded, though unofficially, as the northwestern portion of
the Alaska Highway, with Fairbanks at Historic Milepost 1520.
Mileposts on this stretch of highway are measured from the port of
Valdez on Prince William Sound, rather than the Alaska Highway. The
Alaska Highway is popularly (but unofficially) considered part of the
Pan-American Highway, which extends south (despite its discontinuity
in Panama) to Argentina.


 Proposal 
==========
Proposals for a highway to Alaska originated in the 1920s. Thomas
MacDonald, director of the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads, dreamed of an
international highway spanning the United States and Canada. In order
to promote the highway, in 1933 Slim Williams originally traveled the
proposed route by dogsled. Since much of the route would pass through
Canada, support from the Canadian government was crucial. However, the
Canadian government perceived no value in putting up the required
funds to build the road, since the only part of Canada that would
benefit was not more than a few thousand people in Yukon.

In 1929, the British Columbia government proposed a highway to Alaska
to encourage economic development and tourism. American President
Herbert Hoover appointed a board with American and three Canadian
members to evaluate the idea. Its 1931 report supported the idea for
economic reasons, but both American and Canadian members recognized
that a highway would benefit the American military in Alaska. In 1933,
the joint commission proposed the U.S. government contribute $2
million of the capital cost, with the $12 million balance borne by the
Canadian and BC governments. The Great Depression and the Canadian
government's lack of support caused the project to not proceed.

When the United States approached Canada again in February 1936, the
Canadian government refused to commit to spending money on a road
connecting the United States. The Canadians also worried about the
military implications, fearing that in a war between Japan and North
America, the United States would use the road to prevent Canadian
neutrality. During a June 1936 visit to Canada, President Franklin D.
Roosevelt told Prime Minister W. L. M. King that a highway to Alaska
through Canada could be important in quickly reinforcing the American
territory during a foreign crisis. Roosevelt became the first American
to publicly discuss the military benefits of a highway in an August
speech in Chautauqua, New York. He again mentioned the idea during
King's visit to Washington in March 1937, suggesting that a $30
million highway would be helpful as part of a larger defense against
Japan that would include, the Americans hoped, a larger Canadian
military presence on the Pacific coast. Roosevelt remained a supporter
of the highway, telling Cordell Hull in August 1937 that he wanted a
road built as soon as possible. By 1938, Duff Pattullo, the BC
premier, favored a route through Prince George. The U.S. offered
either a $15 million interest-free loan, or to cover half the
construction costs.

The December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor and beginning of the
Pacific Theater in World War II, coupled with Japanese threats to the
west coast of North America and the Aleutian Islands, changed the
priorities for both nations. On February 6, 1942, the construction of
the Alaska Highway was approved by the United States Army and the
project received the authorization from the U.S. Congress and
Roosevelt to proceed five days later. Canada agreed to allow
construction as long as the United States bore the full cost, and that
the road and other facilities in Canada be turned over to Canadian
authority after the war ended. It proved unimportant for the military
because 99 percent of the supplies to Alaska during the war were sent
by sea from San Francisco, Seattle, and Prince Rupert.


 Routing 
=========
The Americans preferred Route A which, starting at Prince George, went
northwest to
Hazelton, along the Stikine River, by
Atlin, Teslin and Tagish Lakes, and from Whitehorse, Yukon, to
Fairbanks, Alaska, via the Tanana Valley. However, the route was
vulnerable to possible enemy attack from the sea, experienced steep
grades and heavy snowfall, and had no airbases along the way.

The Canadians favored Route B. This also started at Prince George, but
followed the Rocky Mountain Trench up the valleys of the Parsnip and
Finlay Rivers to Finlay Forks and Sifton Pass, then north to Frances
Lake and the Pelly River in the Yukon. From there it went to Dawson
City and down the Yukon Valley to connect the Richardson Highway to
Fairbanks. The advantages of this inland route was the safe distance
from enemy planes, and 209 mi shorter with lower elevations enabling
lower construction and maintenance costs. The disadvantages were the
bypassing of respective airbases, and Whitehorse, the principal town
in the Yukon. Optional variations in the southern portion of this
route were via Vanderhoof to the west or Monkman Pass to the east.

Route C, the Prairie option, advocated by the United States Army Corps
of Engineers, was the only practical one. It was far enough inland
from enemy planes and it linked the airfields of the Northwest Staging
Route that conveyed lend-lease aircraft from the United States to the
Soviet Union. This option encountered more level terrain, not
ascending a pass over 4250 ft. There was also a railhead at Dawson
Creek, British Columbia, and a winter trail from there to
Fort Nelson, 300 mi to the northwest. It followed the Rocky Mountain
Trench toward Dawson City before turning west to Fairbanks.


 Construction 
==============
The road was originally built mostly by the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers as a supply route during World War II. In 1942, the Army
Corps of Engineers assigned more than 10,000 men, about a third of
whom were black soldiers, members of three newly formed
African-American segregated regiments. There were four main thrusts in
building the route: southeast from Delta Junction, Alaska, toward a
linkup at Beaver Creek, Yukon; north then west from Dawson Creek (an
advance group started from Fort Nelson, British Columbia, after
traveling on winter roads on frozen marshland from railway stations on
the Northern Alberta Railways); both east and west from Whitehorse
after being ferried in via the White Pass and Yukon Route railway. The
Army commandeered equipment of all kinds, including local riverboats,
railway locomotives, and housing originally meant for use in southern
California.

The official start of construction took place on March 9, 1942, after
hundreds of pieces of construction equipment were moved on priority
trains by the Northern Alberta Railways to the northeastern part of
British Columbia near Mile 0 at Dawson Creek. Construction accelerated
through the spring as the winter weather faded away and crews were
able to work from both the northern and southern ends; they were
spurred on after reports of the Japanese invasion of Kiska Island and
Attu Island in the Aleutians. During construction the road was
nicknamed the "oil can highway" by the work crews due to the large
number of discarded oil cans and fuel drums that marked the road's
progress. The construction crew had also passed through an Indigenous
village known as Champagne (Shadhala-ra) which they used to set up
camp. Unfortunately, disease spread and nearly wiped out the
indigenous population of the village. After the war, the survivors
left the village to find work, leaving the location a ghost town.

On September 24, 1942, crews from both directions met at Mile 588 at
what became named Contact Creek, at the British Columbia-Yukon border
at the 60th parallel; the entire route was completed October 28, 1942,
with the northern linkup at Mile 1202, Beaver Creek, and the highway
was dedicated on November 20, 1942, at Soldier's Summit.

Although it was completed on October 28, 1942, and its completion was
celebrated at Soldier's Summit on November 21 (and broadcast by radio,
the exact outdoor temperature censored due to wartime concerns), the
"highway" was not usable by general vehicles until 1943. Even then
there were many steep grades, a poor surface, switchbacks to gain and
descend hills, and few guardrails. Bridges, which progressed during
1942 from pontoon bridges to temporary log bridges, were replaced with
steel bridges where necessary. A replica log bridge, the Canyon Creek
bridge, can be seen at the Aishihik River crossing; the bridge was
rebuilt in 1987 and refurbished in 2005 by the Yukon government where
it functions as a popular tourist attraction. The easing of the
Japanese invasion threat resulted in no more contracts being given to
private contractors for upgrading of specific sections.

Some 100 mi of route between Burwash Landing and Koidern, Yukon,
became nearly impassable in May and June 1943 due to permafrost
thawing under the road and destroying the layer of delicate vegetation
that held the road together. A corduroy road was built to restore the
route, and corduroy still underlies old sections of highway in the
area. Modern construction methods do not allow the permafrost to thaw,
either by building a gravel berm on top or replacing the vegetation
and soil immediately with gravel. The Burwash-Koidern section,
however, is still a problem as the new highway built there in the late
1990s continues to experience frost heave.

'Pincers on Japan' and 'Look to the North', both 1944 productions,
were National Film Board of Canada documentaries that depicted the
construction of the Alaska Highway.


 Post war 
==========
The original agreement between Canada and the United States regarding
construction of the highway stipulated that its Canadian portion be
turned over to Canada six months after the end of the war. This took
place on April 1, 1946, when the U.S. Army transferred control of the
road through Yukon and British Columbia to the Canadian Army,
Northwest Highway System. The Alaskan section was completely paved
during the 1960s. The lower 50 miles of the Canadian portion were
paved in 1959, but the remainder was largely gravel. While the entire
route is now completely paved (mostly with bituminous surface
treatment), as late as the mid-1980s the highway still included
sections of winding dusty road sandwiched between high quality
reconstructed paved segments.

'The Milepost', an extensive guide book to the Alaska Highway and
other highways in Alaska and Northwest Canada, was first published in
1949 and continues to be published annually as the foremost guide to
travelling the highway.
The British Columbia government owns the first 82.6 mi of the highway,
the only portion paved during the late 1960s and 1970s. Public Works
Canada manages the highway from Mile 82.6 (km 133) to Historic Mile
630. The Yukon government owns the highway from Historic Mile 630 to
Historic Mile 1016 (from near Watson Lake to Haines Junction), and
manages the remainder to the U.S. border at Historic Mile 1221. The
State of Alaska owns the highway within that state (Mile 1221 to Mile
1422).

The Alaska Highway was built for military purposes and its route was
not ideal for postwar development of northern Canada. Rerouting in
Canada has shortened the highway by about 35 mi since 1947, mostly by
eliminating winding sections and sometimes by bypassing residential
areas. The historic milepost markings are therefore no longer accurate
but are still important as local location references. Some old
sections of the highway are in use as local roads, while others are
left to deteriorate and still others are plowed up. Four sections form
local residential streets in Whitehorse and Fort Nelson, and others
form country residential roadways outside of Whitehorse. Although
Champagne, Yukon was bypassed in 2002, the old highway is still
completely in service for that community until a new direct access
road is built.

Rerouting continues, expected to continue in the Yukon through 2009,
with the Haines Junction-Beaver Creek section covered by the
Canada-U.S. Shakwak Agreement. The new Donjek River bridge was opened
September 26, 2007, replacing a 1952 bridge. Under Shakwak, U.S.
federal highway money is spent for work done by Canadian contractors
who win tenders issued by the Yukon government. The Shakwak Project
completed the Haines Highway upgrades in the 1980s between Haines
Junction and the Alaska Panhandle, then funding was stalled by
Congress for several years.

'The Milepost' shows the Canadian section of the highway now to be
about 1187 mi, but the first milepost inside Alaska is 1222. The
actual length of the highway inside Alaska is no longer clear because
rerouting, as in Canada, has shortened the route, but unlike Canada,
mileposts in Alaska are not recalibrated. The BC and Yukon governments
and Public Works Canada have recalibrated kilometre posts. The latest
BC recalibration was carried out in 1990; using its end-point at the
border at Historic Mile 630, the Yukon government has recalibrated in
three stages: in 2002, from Mile 630 to the west end of the Champagne
revision; in fall 2005, to a point just at the southeast shore of
Kluane Lake, and in fall 2008, to the border with Alaska.

There are historical mileposts along the B.C. and Yukon sections of
the highway, installed in 1992, that note specific locations, although
the posts no longer represent accurate driving distance. There are 80
mileposts in B.C., 70 in Yukon and 16 in Alaska with a simple number
marker of the original mile distance. There are 31 "historic signs" in
B.C., 22 in Yukon and 5 in Alaska, identifying the significance of the
location. There are 18 interpretive panels in B.C., 14 in Yukon and 5
in Alaska which give detailed text information at a turn-off parking
area.

The portion of the Alaska Highway in Alaska is designated Alaska Route
2. In Yukon, it is Highway 1 (designated in 1968) and in British
Columbia, Highway 97. The portion of the Alaska Highway in Alaska is
also unsigned Interstate A-1 and unsigned Interstate A-2.


 Route markings 
================
The Canadian section of the road was delineated with mileposts, based
on the road as it was in 1947, but over the years, reconstruction
steadily shortened the distance between some of those mileposts. In
1978, metric signs were placed on the highway, and the mileposts were
replaced with kilometre posts at the approximate locations of a
historic mileage of equal value, e.g. km post 1000 was posted about
where historical Mile 621 would have been posted.

As reconstruction continues to shorten the highway, the kilometre
posts, at 2 km intervals, were recalibrated along the B.C. section of
road to reflect the driving distances in 1990. The section of highway
covered by the 1990 recalibration has since been rendered shorter by
further realignments, such as near Summit Pass and between Muncho Lake
and Iron Creek.

Based on where those values left off, new Yukon kilometre posts were
erected in fall 2002 between the B.C. border and the west end of the
new bypass around Champagne, Yukon; in 2005, additional recalibrated
posts continued from there to the east shore of Kluane Lake near
Silver City; and in fall 2008, from Silver City to the boundary with
Alaska. Old kilometre posts, based on the historic miles, remained on
the highway, after the first two recalibrations, from those points
around Kluane Lake to the Alaska border. The B.C. and Yukon sections
also have a small number of historic mileposts, printed on oval-shaped
signs, at locations of historic significance; these special signs were
erected in 1992 on the occasion of the highway's 50th anniversary.

The Alaska portion of the highway is still marked by mileposts at 1 mi
intervals, although they no longer represent accurate driving
distance, due to reconstruction.

The historic mileposts are still used by residents and businesses
along the highway to refer to their location, and in some cases are
also used as postal addresses.
The community Wonowon, British Columbia, is named by its location at
mile 101, spoken "one-oh-one".

Residents and travelers, and the government of the Yukon, do not use
"east" and "west" to refer to direction of travel on the Yukon
section, even though this is the predominant bearing of the Yukon
portion of the highway; "north" and "south" are used, referring to the
south (Dawson Creek) and north (Delta Junction) termini of the
highway. This is an important consideration for travelers who may
otherwise be confused, particularly when a westbound travel routes
southwestward or even due south to circumvent a natural obstacle such
as Kluane Lake.

Some B.C. sections west of Fort Nelson also route more east-to-west,
with southwest bearings in some section; again, "north" is used in
preference to "west".

Since 1949 'The Milepost', an exhaustive guide to the Alaska Highway
and all other routes through the region, has been published each year.


 Proposed U.S. Route 97 designation 
====================================
The portion of the Alaska Highway in Alaska was planned to become part
of the United States Numbered Highway System and to be signed as part
of U.S. Route 97 (US 97). In 1953, the British Columbia government
renumbered a series of highways to Highway 97 between the U.S. border
at Osoyoos, US 97's northern terminus, and Dawson Creek. The Alaska
International Rail and Highway Commission lobbied for the designation
of Highway 97 from Fairbanks to Mexico City in the late 1950s. Certain
prior editions of United States Geological Survey topographic maps,
mostly published during the 1950s, bore the US 97 highway shield along
or near portions of the current AK-2. In 1964, the American
Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO)
approved an extension of US 97 from the Yukon border to Fairbanks
along AK-2, conditional to Yukon renumbering its portion of the Alaska
Highway; the Yukon government declined to renumber its portion of the
highway and approval was withdrawn in 1968.


                          Route description                           
======================================================================
The pioneer road completed in 1942 was about 1680 mi from Dawson Creek
to Delta Junction. The Army then turned the road over to the Public
Roads Administration (PRA), which then began putting out section
contracts to private road contractors to upgrade selected sections of
the road. These sections were upgraded, with removal of excess bends
and steep grades; often, a traveler could identify upgraded sections
by seeing the telephone line along the PRA-approved route alignment.
When the Japanese invasion threat eased, the PRA stopped putting out
new contracts. Upon hand-off to Canada in 1946, the route was 1422 mi
from Dawson Creek to Delta Junction.

The route follows a northwest then northward course from Dawson Creek
to Fort Nelson. On October 16, 1957, a suspension bridge crossing the
Peace River just south of Fort St. John collapsed. A new bridge was
built a few years later. At Fort Nelson, the road turns west and
crosses the Rocky Mountains, before resuming a westward course at Coal
River. The highway crossed the Yukon-BC border nine times from Mile
590 to Mile 773, six of those crossings were from Mile 590 to Mile
596. After passing the south end of Kluane Lake, the highway follows a
north-northwest course to the Alaska border, then northwest to the
terminus at Delta Junction.

Postwar rebuilding has not shifted the highway more than 10 mi from
the original alignment, and in most cases, by less than 3 mi. It is
not clear if it still crosses the Yukon-BC border six times from Mile
590 to Mile 596.


 Interstate Highway System 
===========================
The Alaska portion of the Alaska Highway is an unsigned part of the
Interstate Highway System east of Fairbanks. The entire length of
Interstate A-2 follows Route 2 from the George Parks Highway
(Interstate A-4) junction in Fairbanks to Tok, east of which Route 2
carries Interstate A-1 off the Tok Cut-Off Highway to the
international border. Only a short piece of the Richardson Highway in
Fairbanks is built to freeway standards.


                         Major intersections                          
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The following is a list of major intersections along the Alaska
Highway:


 Fort Nelson 
=============
* Mile 301 to 308, now local residential feeder roads Wildflower
Drive, Highland Road, Valleyview Drive


 Whitehorse 
============
* Mile 898, now local residential road just west of Yukon River Bridge
* Mile 920.3 to 922.5, now the southern and northern portions of
Centennial Street; middle portion is Birch Street
* Mile 922.5 to 922.7, now a portion of Azure Road
* Mile 924, now a portion of Cousins Airfield Road
* Mile 925.5 to 926.9, now Parent Road (east end overlooks Alaska
Highway/Klondike Highway junction)
* Mile 927.2 to 927.7, now Echo Valley Road
* Mile 928 to 928.3, now Jackson Road
* Mile 929 to 934, now Old Alaska Highway
* Mile 968, now entrance road to Mendenhall River Subdivision


 Champagne-Aishihik traditional territory 
==========================================
* Mile 969 to 981, Champagne loop (bypassed in fall 2002 by 8.6 mi
revision)
* Mile 1016, Hume Street in Haines Junction including access to First
Nation subdivision


 Alaska 
========
* Mile 1348, one 2.5 mi bypassed section of the original route, about
37 mi southeast of Delta Junction, is listed on the National Register
of Historic Places as "one of the few sections of the road in Alaska
virtually unchanged". The unpaved road is used by local residents to
access Craig Lake, and is signed as Craig Lake Trail.

Other former segments have deteriorated and are no longer usable. More
recent construction projects have deliberately plowed up roadway to
close it.


                               See also                               
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* Inter-American Highway
* R504 Kolyma Highway
* List of Yukon territorial highways
* Pan-American Highway
* Sign Post Forest
* Alcan-Beaver Creek Border Crossing


                            External links                            
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*
* [http://www.alaskahighwayarchives.ca/en/index.php Alaska Highway - A
Yukon perspective] - From the Yukon Archives
* [http://www.milepost.com/ Alaska Highway Driving Facts] - From the
authors of the Milepost
* [http://www.bellsalaska.com/alaska_highway.html Bell's Alaska] -
mile by mile description of the Alaska Highway
* [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/alaska/ Building the Alaska Highway]
- Companion Website for the PBS program.
*
[https://web.archive.org/web/20110118050414/http://alcan-highway.com/
Alcan-Highway.com] - U.S. Army 95th Engineer Regiment (Colored)
building the Alcan Highway
*
[http://blackartblog.blackartdepot.com/features/black-historical-facts/forgotten-facts-about-the-blacks-who-built-the-canada-highway.html
Forgotten Facts About the African American Engineers Who Worked on the
Alaska-Canada Highway]  - An article describing contributions made by
the four African American regiments of the US Army Corps of Engineers
that worked on the ALCAN Project
*
[https://books.google.com/books?id=xNYDAAAAMBAJ&dq=popular+Mechanics+1942+Short+Cut+To+Tokyo&pg=PA28
'Shortcut To Tokyo', September 1942] one of the earliest articles on
the Alaskan Highway
*
[https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/24/science/what-you-need-to-know-to-travel-the-alaska-highway.html
Many Wonders (but Few Amenities) on a Legendary Highway] July 23, 2012
'The New York Times'
*
[https://www.asce.org/about-civil-engineering/history-and-heritage/historic-landmarks/alaska-highway
American Society of Civil Engineers - International Historic Civil
Engineering Landmark]
* "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzwgqwqKqfQ&t=638s When
Americans Built a Road Across Canada]". 'Canadiana' - via YouTube


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=========
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Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Highway