Interstate Highways in Alaska
The Interstate Highways in Alaska are all owned and maintained by the U. S. state of Alaska. The Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities is responsible for the maintenance and operations of the Interstate Highways; the Interstate Highway System in Alaska comprises four highways. The longest of these is A-1, at 408.23 miles long, while the shortest route is A-3, at 148.12 miles long. All Interstates in Alaska are unsigned and are not referred to by their highway numbers. Interstates in Alaska follow the numbering system Interstate A-n, where n represents the number of the Interstate; this follows the similar numbering systems for Puerto Rico. The Interstate Highway System was expanded to Alaska in 1976, by the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1976, which defined the system for Interstates in Alaska and Puerto Rico under Title 23, Chapter 1, Section 103 of the U. S. Code. Most of the lengths of the Interstates in Alaska are not constructed to Interstate Highway standards, but are small, two-lane undivided highways.
Title 23 provides that "Highways on the Interstate System in Alaska and Puerto Rico shall be designed in accordance with such geometric and construction standards as are adequate for current and probable future traffic demands and the needs of the locality of the highway." Some portions of these highways are built to Interstate standards, though. The Seward Highway, part of A-3, is built to freeway standards in Anchorage; the Glenn Highway, part of A-1, is built to freeway standards from Anchorage to Wasilla. A small portion of the George Parks Highway, A-4, is constructed to freeway standards in Wasilla. In and around Fairbanks, the Richardson Highway, part of A-2, is constructed to freeway standards. In addition to these highways, the Johansen Expressway, in Fairbanks, the Minnesota Drive Expressway, in Anchorage, are constructed to expressway standards. Alaska portal U. S. Roads portal Photos of Alaska Interstate Highway ends Alaska Interstates at AARoads' Interstate Guide
Seward, Alaska
Seward is an incorporated home rule city in Alaska, United States. Located on Resurrection Bay, a fjord of the Gulf of Alaska on the Kenai Peninsula, Seward is situated on Alaska's southern coast 120 miles by road from Alaska's largest city and nearly 1,300 miles from the closest point in the contiguous United States at Cape Flattery, Washington. With an estimated permanent population of 2,831 people as of 2017, Seward is the fourth-largest city in the Kenai Peninsula Borough, behind Kenai and the borough seat of Soldotna; the city is named for former U. S. Secretary of State William H. Seward, who orchestrated the United States' purchase of Alaska from the Russian Empire in 1867 while serving in this position as part of President Andrew Johnson's administration. Seward is the southern terminus of the Alaska Railroad and the historic starting point of the original Iditarod Trail to the Alaskan interior, with Mile 0 of the trail marked on the shoreline at the southern end of town. In 1793 Alexander Baranov of the Shelikhov-Golikov company established a fur trade post on Resurrection Bay where Seward is today, had a three-masted vessel, the Phoenix, built at the post by James Shields, an English shipwright in Russian service.
The 1939 Slattery Report on Alaskan development identified the region as one of the areas where new settlements would be established through Jewish immigration. This plan was never implemented. Seward was an important port for the military buildup in Alaska during World War II. Fort Raymond was established in Seward along the Resurrection River to protect the community. An Army airfield built in Seward during the war became Walseth Air Force Base. Both of the military facilities were closed shortly after the end of the war. A large portion of Seward was damaged by shaking and a local tsunami during the 1964 Alaska earthquake. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 21.5 square miles, of which 14.4 square miles is land and 7.1 square miles is water. The northern city limits are demarcated by the lower reaches of the Resurrection River, but extend east past the river's mouth at the northern end of Resurrection Bay to include parts of the bay's extreme northeastern shore, including the beach at the mouth of Fourth of July Creek and the grounds of Spring Creek Correctional Center just inland.
To the south, the city limits extend to the unincorporated community of Lowell Point, while the east and west sides of the city are constrained by Resurrection Bay and the steep slopes of Mount Marathon. Nearby settlements include the aforementioned Lowell Point to the south, as well as the census-designated places of Bear Creek and Moose Pass further north; the nearest incorporated city is Soldatna, about 90 miles away by road to the northwest. By definition, Seward has a subarctic climate, but it experiences moderate temperatures compared to the rest of the state throughout the year due to the influence of the nearby Gulf of Alaska. Only one month, sees an average daily high temperature below freezing, temperatures below zero degrees Fahrenheit are rare; the oceanic influence imparts a high level of precipitation, with the heaviest amounts occurring during the fall and winter months. Seward's local economy is driven by the commercial fishing industry and seasonal tourism. Many lodging facilities and shops in the city cater to tourists, are only open for business during the summer tourist season regarded as running from mid-May through mid-September.
Other major employers in the city include the state-run Spring Creek Correctional Center, the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development's AVTEC vocational school, the local Providence Health & Services branch, which serves as the community's main medical center. Seward is among the most lucrative commercial fisheries ports in the United States, according to reports from the National Marine Fisheries Service. Per the most recent yearly data available, for 2016, commercial fishing boats in Seward offloaded 13,500 tons of fish and shellfish, valued at about $42 million USD. Over the course of the decade from 2007 to 2016, around $545 million USD in commercial seafood passed through Seward's harbor. Owing to its position at the southern terminus of the Alaska Railroad and well-developed road links to Anchorage and the rest of the Kenai Peninsula, Seward is both a major northern end-port for several major cruise ship lines that host Alaskan cruises, such as Norwegian, Royal Caribbean, Holland America, Celebrity Cruises, a common destination for general Alaskan tourism.
Seward has a minor military installation and is the home port of the USCGC Mustang. Seward first appeared on the 1910 U. S. Census as an unincorporated village, it formally incorporated in 1912. As of the census of 2000, there were 2,830 people, 917 households, 555 families residing in the city; the population density was 196.0 people per square mile. There were 1,058 housing units at an average density of 73.3 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 72.12% White, 2.44% Black or African American, 16.68% Native American, 1.84% Asian, 0.18% Pacific Islander, 0.88% from other races, 5.87% from two or more races. 2.40% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. There were 917 households out of which 35.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 44.6% were married couples living together, 12.1% had a female householder with no husband present, 39.4% were non-families. 30.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.1% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older.
The average household si
Chugach National Forest
The Chugach National Forest is a 6,908,540-acre United States National Forest in south central Alaska. Covering portions of Prince William Sound, the Kenai Peninsula and the Copper River Delta, it was formed in 1907 from part of a larger forest reserve; the Chugach includes extensive shorelines, glaciers and rivers, much of, untouched by roads or trails. It hosts numerous bird and marine species, including extensive shorebird habitat and a bald eagle population larger than the contiguous 48 states combined. Human industry in the forest includes some mining and oil and gas operations; the area, now Chugach was settled by Native Americans thousands of years ago. It was discovered by Europeans in the mid-1700s and soon settled by Russian fur traders, who trapped the native sea otters. In 1867, the US purchased Alaska from Russia and gold was found in 1888. In 1907, the Chugach National Forest was created from a portion of forest reserve, one of the first of its kind, designated in 1892, it is located in the mountains surrounding Prince William Sound including the eastern Kenai Peninsula and the delta of the Copper River.
It is the second-largest forest in the U. S. national forest system, is the northern-most and western-most national forest. 30 percent of the area of the forest is covered by ice. Portions of the Kenai Peninsula make up 21 percent of the forest, include the southern portion of the Iditarod National Historic Trail. Parts of Prince William Sound make up about 48 percent of the forest; this includes 3,500 miles of shoreline, 22 tidewater glaciers, the Nellie Juan-College Fiord Wilderness Study Area, which covers 2,200,000 acres. Portions of the Copper River Delta cover 31 percent of the forest, include the "largest contiguous wetlands complex on North America's Pacific coast". Despite its huge size, there are only 90 miles of Forest Service roads, although there are over 500 miles of designated trails; the supervisor's office is located in Anchorage. There are local ranger district offices located in Cordova and Seward. In descending order of land area within the forest it is located in parts of the Valdez-Cordova Census Area, Kenai Peninsula Borough, Anchorage Municipality, Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Kodiak Island Borough, Yakutat City and Borough.
The Chugach is a temperate rain forest in the Pacific temperate rain forest region. Here the forest occupies only a narrow strip between the ocean and the icy alpine zone; the dominant trees are limited to western hemlock and mountain hemlock. This zone is known as the"sub-polar rainforest"; the Kenai Peninsula section of the forest is home to over 200 colonies of seabirds, as well as between 3,000 and 5,000 bald eagles. The same number of eagles live in the Chugach National Forest as live in the entire contiguous United States; the Copper River Delta portion of the forest is the largest contiguous portion of the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network and is "considered one of the most essential shorebird habitats in the world". The Delta provides habitat for over 20 million birds annually, during the summer, one quarter of the world's trumpeter swans and dusky Canada geese call the Delta home. Mammals that inhabit this forest include coyote, timber wolf, Alaskan moose, marten, Sitka black-tailed deer, mountain goat, black bears and grizzly bears.
Dall sheep are found. Humpback whales, sea lions and otters are found in the Chugach's waters; the waters around the forest host all five species of Pacific salmon found in North America: chinook salmon, sockeye salmon, coho salmon, chum salmon and pink salmon. There is little logging done in the Chugach, less than 2 percent of the forest is considered suitable for commercial logging operations. Instead, the forest infuses money into local communities through tourism, recreation and commercial fishing. There are over 7 million annual visitors to the Chugach National Forest, including kayakers, hikers, skiers and anglers. None of the area is designated as national wilderness, although much of it qualifies under federal law. Mining, including coal and hard rock operations, oil and gas development are found in the forest. In 2003, the Department of the Interior announced that 3,000 acres of forest was no longer open to mining, adding that area to 2,000 acres, placed off limits; the affected land borders the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge Wilderness, the department cited protecting the Russian River and upper Russian Lake Recreation Corridor as the reason for the change.
Tongass National Forest U. S. Forest Service site: Chugach National Forest Fire History Disturbance Study A History of the U. S. Forest Service in Alaska The Rainforests of Home, an Atlas of People and Place at Archive.today Temperate Rainforests of the North Pacific Coast
Seward Highway
The Seward Highway is a highway in the U. S. state of Alaska that extends 125 miles from Seward to Anchorage. It was completed in 1951 and runs through the scenic Kenai Peninsula, Chugach National Forest, Turnagain Arm, Kenai Mountains; the Seward Highway is numbered Alaska Route 9 for the first 37 miles from Seward to the Sterling Highway and AK-1 for the remaining distance to Anchorage. At the junction with the Sterling Highway, AK-1 turns west towards Homer. About eight miles of the Seward Highway leading into Anchorage is built to freeway standards. In Anchorage, the Seward Highway terminates at an intersection with 5th Avenue, which AK-1 is routed to, which leads to the Glenn Highway freeway; the full length of the Seward Highway has been listed on the National Highway System, a network of roads important to the country's economy and mobility. The segment designated AK-9 between Seward and Tern Lake Junction is part of the STRAHNET subsystem, highways that are important to defense policy and which provide defense access and emergency capabilities for defense purposes.
The remainder that follows AK-1 is designated Interstate A-1 and included in the NHS on that basis. The state's Interstate Highways are not required to comply with Interstate Highway standards, instead "shall be designed in accordance with such geometric and construction standards as are adequate for current and probable future traffic demands and the needs of the locality of the highway" under federal law; the highway is maintained by the Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities, the A-1 designation is not signed along the highway. In 2010, 2,520 vehicles used the highway near the junction with Sterling Highway in a measure of the annual average daily traffic, the lowest tally along the highway; the highest traffic count as recorded by Alaska DOT&PF was 58,799 vehicles daily at the Dowling Road overpass in Anchorage. In 2012, Life magazine included the Seward Highway in its list of Most Scenic Drives in the World; the Seward Highway begins at an intersection with Railway Avenue, in Seward, less than 300 feet from the Gulf of Alaska.
At this point, the Seward Highway is two lanes, with a parking lane on each side. The Seward Highway is designated as AK-9 at this point of the route; the highway continues through central Seward, passing several small businesses, the Seward Museum, as well as several hotels and motels. The highway continues past the Seward Airport, before entering the unincorporated community of Bear Creek. Just after entering Bear Creek, a series of tracks belonging to the Alaska Railroad comes alongside the roadway; these railroad tracks continue on with the Seward Highway until Moose Pass, return near a junction with the Portage Glacier Highway, remain until the highway becomes a freeway, in southern Anchorage. The Seward Highway proceeds through central Bear Creek, passing Bear Lake, until entering Chugach National Forest; the Seward Highway enters the Chugach National Forest just 5 miles after its start. The highway enters the Chugach National Forest while it is still part of the Bear Creek community, so it gives the appearance of still being inside that census-designated place.
After a mile or so though, the area surrounding the highway begins to look more like a national forest. The Alaska Railroad weaves back and forth under the highway, which causes the highway to become a series of small bridges. For a few miles after the bridges, the Seward Highway is a four-lane road, but merges back to two lane. After passing through about 10 miles of forest, the highway passes Primrose Spur Road, enters Primrose. For the next five or so miles, the route runs alongside Kenai Lake. Just before peeling off of Kenai Lake, the route passes though Crown Point, provides access to a large campground; the highway runs alongside the Trail Creek for about 6 miles, before passing the settlement of Moose Pass. The road continues, passing along Upper Trail Lake for a few miles, before peeling off and returning to the dense forest, passing a large mountain range. After a few more miles, the road passes the Tern Lake Junction, intersects with Alaska Route 1, where Alaska Route 9 terminates, the Seward Highway is designated to AK-1.
It’s at this point that the road begins to climb into the actual mountains to approach Turnagain Pass. For several miles, the roadway continues through Alaskan pine forests. After 10 miles, the highway passes Summit Lake, provides access to another large campground; the road continues through a large mountain range on either side of the highway. After about 8 miles, the route intersects the Hope Highway, which provides access to the city of Hope, the highway reenters forest; the roadway continues through forest for a brief period, again enters the mountains. The route continues through the mountains for about 24 miles more, before reaching the Turnagain Arm. Just after reaching the Turnagain Arm, the highway enters the city limits of Anchorage. After intersecting the Portage Glacier Highway the Alaska Railroad tracks again come alongside the route; the highway continues through the Chugach National Forest for 8 miles, passing the Turnagain Arm to the west, the Kenai Mountains to the east. It exits the Chugach National Forest, having spent 72 miles inside its boundaries.
After the highway exits the National Forest, it continues for about 5 miles through pine forest, before passing through the community of Girdwood. After about a mile, the highway ente
Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska
Kenai Peninsula Borough is a borough of the U. S. state of Alaska. As of the 2010 census, the population was 55,400; the borough seat is Soldotna. The borough includes the entirety of the Kenai Peninsula and a few areas of the mainland of Alaska on the opposite side of Cook Inlet; the borough has a total area of 24,752 square miles, of which 16,075 square miles is land and 8,677 square miles is water. Bethel Census Area, Alaska - northwest Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska - north Municipality of Anchorage, Alaska - north Valdez-Cordova Census Area, Alaska - east Lake and Peninsula Borough, Alaska - west Kodiak Island Borough, Alaska - south Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge Chiswell Islands Tuxedni Wilderness Chugach National Forest Katmai National Park and Preserve Katmai Wilderness Kenai Fjords National Park Kenai National Wildlife Refuge Kenai Wilderness Lake Clark National Park and Preserve Lake Clark Wilderness Bear Lake, Tutka Bay, the Trail Lakes, have been the site of salmon enhancement activities.
All three sites are managed by the Cook Inlet Aquaculture Association Some of the fish hatched at these facilities are released into the famous Homer fishing hole. Cook Inlet Keeper and the Cook Inlet Regional Citizen's Advisory Council are groups that attempt to influence public policy on the use of the areas resources; as of the census of 2000, there were 49,700 people, 18,400 households, 12,700 families residing in the borough. The population density was 1/km². There were 24,900 housing units at an average density of 2 per square mile; the racial makeup of the borough was 86% white, 7% Native American, 2% Hispanic or Latino, 4% from two or more races. Black or African Americans and Pacific Islanders each were less than 1% of the population. Just under 1% were from other races combined. 1.92 % reported speaking Russian at home. There were 18,400 households out of which 38% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55% were married couples living together, 9% had a female householder with no husband present, 31% were non-families.
25% of all households were made up of individuals and 5% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.6 and the average family size was 3.2. In the borough the population was spread out with 30% under the age of 18, 7% from 18 to 24, 30% from 25 to 44, 26% from 45 to 64, 7% who were 65 years of age or older; the median age was 36 years. For every 100 females, there were 109 males. There is a borough-wide government based in Soldotna, consisting of a strong mayor and an assembly of representatives from all areas of the borough, they collect sales and property taxes and provide services such as road maintenance, waste collection facilities, emergency services and major funding for public schools, along with mitigation of damage from spruce bark beetles that infested the borough in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Incorporated towns have their own local governments and city councils; the Alaska Department of Corrections operates the Spring Creek Correctional Center near Seward and the Wildwood Correctional Complex near Kenai.
Homer Kachemak Kenai Seldovia Seward Soldotna Jakolof Bay Kachemak Selo Lawing Razdolna Voznesenka 2006 Arctic Winter Games Kalgin Island List of airports in the Kenai Peninsula Borough State parks on the Kenai Peninsula Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska at Curlie Borough map, 2000 census: Alaska Department of Labor Borough map, 2010 census: Alaska Department of Labor
Tok, Alaska
Tok is a census-designated place in Southeast Fairbanks Census Area, United States. The population was 1,258 at the 2010 census, down from 1,393 in 2000. Tok lies on a large, flat alluvial plain of the Tanana Valley between the Tanana River and the Alaska Range at an important junction of the Alaska Highway with the Glenn Highway. According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 132.3 square miles, all of it land. Tok has a dry-winter continental subarctic climate; the weather station is at 1620 feet above sea level. Tok first appeared on the 1950 U. S. Census as the unincorporated village of "Tok Junction." The name was shortened to Tok as of the 1960 census. It was made a census-designated place in 1980; as of the census of 2000, there were 1,393 people, 534 households, 372 families residing in the census designated place. The population density was 10.5 people per square mile. There were 748 housing units at an average density of 5.7 per square mile. The racial makeup of the CDP was 78.03% White, 0.14% Black or African American, 12.85% Native American, 0.43% Asian, 0.93% from other races, 7.61% from two or more races.
Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.08% of the population. There were 534 households out of which 39.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.7% were married couples living together, 11.0% had a female householder with no husband present, 30.3% were non-families. 24.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 5.4% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.61 and the average family size was 3.12. In the CDP, the age distribution of the population shows 32.5% under the age of 18, 5.1% from 18 to 24, 29.5% from 25 to 44, 27.1% from 45 to 64, 5.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females, there were 102.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 102.6 males. The median income for a household in the CDP was $37,941, the median income for a family was $49,219. Males had a median income of $45,375 versus $30,268 for females; the per capita income for the CDP was $18,521. About 9.5% of families and 10.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 10.4% of those under age 18 and 7.7% of those age 65 or over.
There have been Athabascan Indian settlements in the region of. The town at the present location of Tok began in 1942 as an Alaska Road Commission camp used for construction and maintenance of the Alaska Highway. So much money was spent in the camp's construction and maintenance that it earned the nickname "Million Dollar Camp" from those working on the highway. In 1947 the first school opened, in 1958 a larger school was built to accommodate the many newcomers. In 1995 a new school was opened to provide for the larger community. A U. S. Customs Office was located in Tok between 1947 and 1971, when it was moved to the Canada–US border. In one version, the name Tok is derived from the Athabascan word for "peaceful crossing." The U. S. Geological Survey notes that the name "Tok River" was in use for the nearby river around 1901, the Athabascan name of "Tokai" had been reported for the same river by Lt. Allen in 1887. In another version the name is derived from the English words "Tokyo camp", although the major war benefit was supporting the transfer of airplanes to the Soviet Union.
Another version claims the name was derived from the canine mascot for one of the Engineer units that built the highways. The name has no connection to the western Alaskan community of Newtok. Another version comes from the proposed road construction of the highway to Richardson Highway. In the 1940s and 1950s, another highway, the Tok Cut-Off was constructed and connected Tok with the Richardson Highway at Glennallen, it was a "cut-off" because it allowed motor travelers from the lower United States to travel to Valdez and Anchorage in south-central Alaska without going further north to Delta Junction and traveling south on the Richardson Highway. When being surveyed from the air, the map marking showed the "T" intersection, the letters "OK" to confirm the location was suitable. Between 1954 and 1979, an 8-inch U. S. Army fuel pipeline operated from the port of Haines with a pump station in Tok. In July 1990 Tok faced extinction when a lightning-caused forest fire jumped two rivers and the Alaska Highway, putting both residents and buildings in peril.
The town was evacuated and the efforts of over a thousand firefighters could not stop the fire. At the last minute a "miracle wind" came up; the fire continued to burn the remainder of the summer burning more than 100,000 acres. On January 10, 2009, Tok made headlines with an unconfirmed temperature reading of −80 °F. Tok is part of the Alaska Gateway School District. Tok School, a K–12 campus, serves community students. There is a small University of Alaska office that provides distance and some local classes for the small community. Residents are served by the Tok Clinic and EMS. Roads connect Tok to both Fairbanks and Anchorage, but the drive is 3 hours 40 minutes or 6 hours 30 minutes, respectively. Therefore, once patients with serious medical conditions are stabilized, they are airlifted to a hospital/medical center in Fairbanks if further treatment is needed. There are a number of state parks in the vicinity of Tok; the Tok River State Recreation Site is a small 9 acres park 4.5 miles east of Tok.
It has a
George Parks Highway
The George Parks Highway called the Parks Highway, runs 323 miles from the Glenn Highway 35 miles north of Anchorage to Fairbanks in the Alaska Interior. The highway known as the Anchorage-Fairbanks Highway, was completed in 1971, given its current name in 1975; the highway, which parallels the Alaska Railroad, is one of the most important roads in Alaska. It is the main route between Anchorage and Fairbanks, the principal access to Denali National Park and Preserve and Denali State Park, the main highway in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley; the route's Interstate designation is not signed. It is a common misconception that the name "Parks Highway" comes from the road's proximity to the Denali state and national parks. However, the aptness of the name was recognized. Mileposts along the Parks Highway do not begin with 0. Instead, they begin with Mile 35, continuing the milepost numbering of the Glenn Highway where the two highways intersect near Palmer; the 0 mile marker for the Glenn Highway is at its terminus in downtown Anchorage at the intersection of East 5th Avenue and Gambell Street.
Thus mileposts along the Parks Highway reflect distance from Anchorage, not on the Parks Highway. There are two sections of the highway; these include an area near the highway's intersection with the Glenn Highway in Palmer and a stretch known as the Robert J. Mitchell Expressway in Fairbanks leading to the highway's junction with the Richardson Highway. George Parks Highway is part of the unsigned part of the Interstate Highway System as Interstate A-4. In the "Mile" column, the first number is the actual mileage of the Parks Highway, the second mile is based on the mileposts along the highway itself. All exits are unnumbered. A journey down the George Parks Highway
Alaska Marine Highway in Homer
AK-2 at Tok
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AK-9 south (Seward Highway) – Seward
AK-3 north (George Parks Highway) – Wasilla, Fairbanks
AK-4 south (Richardson Highway) – Valdez
Media related to State highways in Alaska at Wikimedia Commons