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25-494: The highway is paved and in generally good condition year-round between Fairbanks and the junction with the Dalton Highway , but reverts to an unpaved road for the final 80 miles (130 km) to Manley Hot Springs . This portion of the road, particularly in winter, can be very challenging to navigate due to overflow of ice and water on the road, high-wind areas, and drifting snow. There is no cellular telephone service available on

50-640: A 50-mile side road to Tanana over Tofty . This road was built 2014-2016 for a cost of $ 13 million. The road ends on the south side of the Yukon River , so a boat trip or an ice road is also needed to reach Tanana. Minto is also served by a side road off the main highway called the Minto Road. The Dalton Highway begins 73 miles (118 km) north of Fox at its junction with the Elliott Highway. A 500-mile (800 km) road project ( Manley Hot Springs – Nome )

75-526: A consultant in early oil exploration in northern Alaska. 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 . The road is about one-quarter paved and three-quarters gravel. In 1966, Governor Walter J. Hickel opened the North Slope to oil extraction. To improve access to the oil fields, a 400-mile (640 km) winter road

100-673: A journey on the Dalton is encouraged to bring survival gear. 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. The highway comes to within a few miles of the Arctic Ocean. Beyond the highway's terminus at Deadhorse are private roads owned by oil companies , which are restricted to authorized vehicles only. There are, however, commercial tours that take people to

125-509: A matching Federal Record of Decision for Right-of-Way was signed on January 8, 2003. In 2019, it was announced that BP would be selling its shares in Alyeska to Houston-based Hilcorp . The major owner of the company is Hilcorp with 46.93% of the shares dating from the acquisition of BP . The other group members are ConocoPhillips Transportation (shares formerly owned by ARCO and acquired by Phillips during its acquisition of ARCO Alaska as part of

150-520: Is being discussed in Alaska. It has been estimated (in 2010) to cost $ 2.3–2.7 billion, or approximately $ 5 million per mile. The road to Nome has received hesitation because of the cost. Former governor Sean Parnell wanted, as a beginning, to build a road from Manley Hot Springs to Tanana, around 35 miles length, and the road to Tanana was opened in 2016, ending at the Yukon River. The last 12 miles

175-413: Is private property, and belongs to the village corporation Tozitna Limited. The parking lot by the river is for residents, shareholders and tribal members only. During winters an ice road is made on the river ice, enabling road access for a few months; weather depending. Any continuation would require a fairly expensive bridge to be built. A ferry is an option also, but then the river would be impassable when

200-869: 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 Dalton, a lifelong Alaskan and an engineer who supervised construction of the Distant Early Warning Line in Alaska and, as an expert in Arctic engineering , served as

225-437: The Arctic Ocean. All vehicles must take extreme precaution when driving on the road, and drive with headlights on at all times. There are quite a few steep grades (up to 12%) along the route, as well. As of July 2013 , 129 miles (208 km) 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. Truckers on

250-563: 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, and the Roller Coaster. The road reaches its highest elevation as it crosses the Brooks Range at Atigun Pass at 4,739 feet (1,444 m). The highway is the featured road on

275-446: The Elliott Highway north of Wickersham Dome, though there is fuel available in Minto , and traffic, particularly past the Dalton Highway cutoff, can be extremely sparse. Travelers are advised to check road conditions before traveling this road through the state transportation hotline, and to carry emergency supplies and fuel enough for 400 miles (640 km). Near Manley Hot Springs there is

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300-428: The blob threatened to bulldoze the section of the road 200 miles (320 km) north of Fairbanks in the next three or four years at a speed of 15 feet (4.6 m) 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. Alyeska Pipeline Service Company The Alyeska consortium refers to

325-535: The end of the highway at Mile 414. Fuel is available at the E. L. Patton Yukon River Bridge (Mile 56), as well as Coldfoot and Deadhorse. Two other settlements, Prospect Creek and Galbraith Lake , are uninhabited except for campers and other short-term residents. The road itself is mostly gravel, very primitive in places, and small vehicle and motorcycle travel carries significant risk. The nearest medical facilities are in Fairbanks and Deadhorse. Anyone embarking on

350-610: 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. 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. Within 5 months, 390 miles (630 km) of

375-547: The ice is too weak for driving but too thick for a ferry. See the article on Alaska Route 2 for an updated major intersections list. Dalton Highway The James W. Dalton Highway , usually referred to as the Dalton Highway (and signed as Alaska Route 11 ), is a 414-mile (666 km) road in Alaska . It begins at the Elliott Highway , north of Fairbanks , and ends at Deadhorse (an unincorporated community within

400-561: The major oil companies that own and operate the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) through the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company . The Alaska corporation commonly known as Alyeska Pipeline Company was founded in 1970 to design, construct, operate and maintain a pipeline to transport oil from the fields on the North Slope of Alaska where oil was discovered in 1968 to an ice-free deep-water port in Valdez, Alaska . The pipeline

425-551: 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. In 2018, a 4,000-foot (1,200 m) section of the Dalton was moved to avoid a debris flow known as "the blob." A roughly 1 mile (1.6 km) long lobe of dirt, ice, and trees,

450-460: The public was allowed access to the entire length of the highway. 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, Wiseman (pop. 12) at Mile 188, and Deadhorse (25 permanent residents, 3,500–5,000 or more seasonal residents depending on oil production) at

475-437: The road were built and construction was finished. The pipeline would not be completed until 1977. It was initially known as the "Wales Highway". 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,

500-619: The settlement between BP and the FTC ) (28.29%), ExxonMobil (20.34%), Koch Alaska Pipeline Company (3.08%), and Unocal (1.36%). The government responsibility in regulating TAPS is managed through the Joint Pipeline Office ( [1] , JPO), a consortium of thirteen federal and state agencies under the Department of the Interior . The corporation is named after an Aleut word meaning "mainland". It

525-537: The 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 . Polar bears are known to traverse the Arctic region of Alaska and can be seen wandering

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550-644: Was argued before the Alaska Supreme Court in 1978. The Alyeska Pipeline Service Company was partially responsible for helping to respond to the Exxon Valdez oil spill . However, Alyeska Pipeline was unprepared for the events, and consequently slow to respond with cleanup crews and equipment. Additionally, shortly before the Exxon Valdez spill, Alyeska had persuaded the Coast Guard that some safety equipment

575-505: Was built between March 1975 and June 1977, running from the North Slope fields at Prudhoe Bay to the Marine Terminal at Valdez on Prince William Sound . Alyeska then went on to operate and maintain TAPS. The first oil flowed into the pipeline on June 20, 1977, and the first tanker load departed from Valdez on August 1, 1977. Totem Marine Tug & Barge, Inc. v. Alyeska Pipeline Service Co.

600-441: Was not necessary on tankers---equipment that may have reduced the scale of the Exxon Valdez disaster. September 2017 Alyeska had another spill due to a mix up of piping by long time employees, and dispensed anywhere from 9.5 to 38 barrels of product into the narrows of Valdez. The thirty-year TAPS State and Federal land leases were due to expire in 2004. The State Lease was renewed for another thirty years on November 26, 2002, and

625-473: 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. Maintenance was not performed as the route was farther west than the planned Trans-Alaska Pipeline System. Following

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