“Future of Alaska Highway could bring better transportation as the Yukon Territory, Alaska collaborate on improvements”, By Adrian Peterson
Alaska deserves the right to harvest its own natural resources, without federal overregulation.
Future of Alaska Highway could bring better transportation as the Yukon Territory, Alaska collaborate on improvements
Published: Nov. 4, 2024 at 3:08 PM CST
FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTVF) - As the State of Alaska and the Yukon Territory work together, a smoother and more frequented future may await the Alaska Highway.
Also known as the Alcan, the highway was built during World War II as a means to move military equipment to the last frontier. Since then it’s been a vital corridor for both Alaska and Canada. But the much needed route has faced ongoing struggles with rough road conditions.
After Gov. Mike Dunleavy met with Ranj Pillai, the Premier of the Yukon Territory, the two leaders worked out an agreement to work on projects that support both the state and the territory. That includes making improvements to the Alaska Highway.
While Alaska is less involved with the actual roadwork this time around, the 49th state has provided funds to the Yukon Territory. While this isn’t out of the normal as a federal agreement in the 1970s outlines such transactions, the funds came out the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program.
In this instance, the manual labor has primarily fallen on the Yukon Territory as the major repairs remain on their side of the border, between Destruction Bay and the border itself. “It’s a troublesome area with a lot of discontinuous permafrost and without money to take care of that area, the Yukon has been struggling to keep up maintenance,” explained John Perreault, a public information officer with the Alaska Dept. of Transportation.
The territory is currently in the planning stage and are conducting environmental assessments, creating designs and engaging First Nations peoples about the road work.
The Yukon Territory said that creating and ensuring a connected roadway is important to them because keeping communities physically connected is important for distribution and cultural reasons.
As they are planning on the roadwork to come, they said they will engage in rehabilitation and enhancement of the highway which includes resurfacing the road, fixing guardrails and improving drainage.
Despite the crux of the work taking place across the border, the benefits of the efforts should serve both the Yukon and Alaska. This includes an easier route for tourism and hopefully an increase of people taking the route. “We know they want a smooth road up there and that, that encourages people to make that trip,” Perreault said. “We used to have those bumper stickers of I survived the Alcan and we’re hoping that those bumper stickers don’t need to make a return.”
The improvements should also have impacts on trade as well since the difficult route can make some companies shy away from using it. “That can effect both the speed with which we are expecting to get things, as well as the cost associated with those for Alaskans,” explained Perreault. A smoother, safer road could increase trade on the highway and reduce costs.
The improvements to the route will likely aid in connectivity for Alaskans too as the Alaska Highway is the only on land roadway connecting the southeast communities such as Skagway and Haines to the interior.
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As a Yukon resident with much family and friends in Alaska, love this highway.
However, more tourism is not attractive to me.
This industry is generally sleazy, brings much to very few and takes much from many.