DOT protects highway from flooding
Following major disruption to vital freight transportation to Prudhoe Bay last year because of the overflow of the Sagavanirktok River across a section of the Dalton Highway, the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities is implementing contingency plans for the protection of the road from a new overflow that is already emerging this year. The agency will construct a gravel berm on the east side of the highway between miles 394 and 397, the agency announced in a Jan. 26 press release.
According to information on the agency’s website, this year’s overflow of the river continues to expand and is increasingly visible from the road, with conditions now similar to those seen in March 2015. Flooding of the road in 2015 began at the end of March.
To prevent a recurrence this year, work on the gravel berm should start in mid-February at the latest. Meanwhile, crews are using snow, burlap and rebar to prevent river overflow from reaching the road, the agency said.
A Dalton Highway reconstruction project to raise the grade 7 feet, replace culverts and resurface began last year from miles 401 to 414 and was extended south to mile 397 in 2015 due to flooding and repairs. Work this year and next will be from mile 379 to 397.
- ALAN BAILEY
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