Dalton Highway

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 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.^[6] Maintenance was not performed as the route was farther west than the planned Trans-Alaska Pipeline System.^[7]

Following 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.^[7]

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.^[8] Within 5 months, 390 miles (630 km) of the road were built and construction was finished. The pipeline would not be completed until 1977.^[7] It was initially known as the "Wales Highway".^[9]

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.^[7] Tourists began to travel north of Disaster Creek on June 4, 1987, after Royal Hyway Tours received the first permit to operate tour buses to Deadhorse.^[10]

In April 1991, Governor Hickel (serving a second term decades after his first) announced that he would open the entire highway to the public. The North Slope Borough government and the Tanana Chiefs Conference successfully sued to prevent the opening, arguing that the highway was unsafe as there were no facilities between Prudhoe Bay and Coldfoot, and that unrestricted traffic would harm the environment and open up possibilities for caribou and moose poaching.^[11] Between 1991 and 1993, the federal Bureau of Land Management (which owned the land surrounding the state-owned highway on either side) built new facilities for the permitted tour buses to use,^[12] and unauthorized use of the highway by drivers without permits increased significantly. The Alaska Supreme Court overruled the 1991 decision in 1993, ordering the state to remove the permit requirement.^[13] The permit system was eliminated and the full length of the highway was opened to the general public on December 2, 1994.^[14]

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,^[15] Wiseman (pop. 12) at Mile 188,^[15] and Deadhorse (25 permanent residents, 3,500–5,000 or more seasonal residents depending on oil production) at the end of the highway at Mile 414.^[15] Fuel is available at the E. L. Patton Yukon River Bridge (Mile 56), as well as Coldfoot and Deadhorse.^[15] Two other settlements, Prospect Creek and Galbraith Lake, are uninhabited except for campers and other short-term residents.

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.^[15]

As of July 2013^[update],^{[needs update]} 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.^{[citation needed]}

Truckers on 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,^[16] 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 the second (episode 7), 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.^[4] Polar bears are known to traverse the Arctic region of Alaska and can be seen wandering 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.^{[17][18][19][20]}

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, 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.^[21][22]

The Dalton Highway is the main subject of the second episode of America's Toughest Jobs, along with seasons 3 and 4 of Ice Road Truckers and the first episode of the BBC's World's Most Dangerous Roads.^[4]

• 
  Dalton Highway south of the Continental Divide in the summer
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  Dalton Highway passing Sukakpak Mountain in the summer
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  The Brooks Range south of the Continental Divide near Atigun Pass (6 March 2013)
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  The Brooks Range north of the Continental Divide (Atigun Pass), mile 256
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  View of tundra in the summer from Dalton Highway, North Slope Borough, Alaska
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  Muskox (Ovibos moschatus), Dalton Highway (Hwy 11) North Slope Borough, Alaska (10 August 2010)
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  Wolf photographed from the Dalton Highway, North Slope Borough, Alaska (10 May 2016)
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  Aerial view of the highway with the Trans-Alaska Pipeline in the background (14 April 2015)
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  Highway about 10 miles south of Deadhorse, North Slope Borough, Alaska (5 April 2015)
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  Highway sign in the snow, North Slope Borough, Alaska (17 April 2015)
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  Winter conditions on the Dalton Highway (April 2016)

• List of Alaska Routes
• Dempster Highway - Only other all-purpose road to go past the Arctic Circle in North America