Alaska 2017 Road Conditions

Here is my input on September 2016 of the Alaska Highway road conditions :

As noted in Sue's pictures, major construction is imminent in the Burwash to Donjek River areas, and probably will extend thru Destruction Bay further south this coming summer as I travelled thru this section at night to avoid construction traffic and pilot car delays.

I was surprised they finally got Donjek to Edith Creek stretch done as that portion took two summers to redo, but it is real nice.

Edith Creek to Koidorn is nice surfaced while Koidorn to White River in the usual past problem sections have reappeared as a buckling frost heave problem which only lasted one year being smooth, but some stretches in that span are still ok for now.

White River to Shakwak research project is pretty nice now and holding up so far, Shakwak to Beaver Creek has a couple buckled spots that reappeared after last year's improvement.

Mirror Creek north of Beaver Creek to the Alaska Border is already showing some spots of severe frost heaves again like it never changed, more decaying with major potholes and patchjobs as that reconditioned stretch will not last too much longer, all that effort on major reconstruction during 2013 and 2014 will seem like wasted time on it, although it still took me only 30 minutes to get to the border in that 19 mile stretch compared to the 45 minutes to an hour it took in the past....2014 and 2015 it took me only 25 minutes with the new improved surfaces to commute this same stretch.

It is frost heave heavy crossing into Alaska pretty bad thru Scottie Creek (new smooth surface there only lasted two years) and intermittent uneven surfaces thru Northway Junction and three miles beyond that (mile 1267) before the road gets better along the way to Tok which is still the normal.

As noted, just south of Liard Hot Springs they have a major bypass project which will eliminate the windy Trout River area of the highway with a new route linking that goes along the side of the mountain to the west where they blasted a lot of area out as it will be much direct straighter route and wider when completed before reconnecting the highway ....I made sure I driven thru there at night along returning northbound with no delays as it was horrible pilot escort during the day with prolong delays.

Mile 20 to 38 (Taylor area including south Taylor Grade) intermittently they have major construction again, as well as mile 58 or so to 60 something somewhere north of Charlie Lake if I remember right ..... Bougie Creek area of major construction wasn't too bad.

The road gets better every year. Expect construction between Mucho Lake and the Liard River. The section from Kluane to the border has improved so much in the last few years it knocked an hour off my travel time this past fall.

The Beaver Creek section was decent in September 2016. They were putting down the new paint lines between White River and Beaver Creek.


North of Burwash Landing there was new construction that will take a while to clean up. Local folks think the contractor stripped too much off the top and it will be a challenge to get it back together.

We went in 2013 and did not encounter "massive mud" in that area.

Timing has a lot to do with the experience.

I went to Alaska this last May and at that time the road around Beaver Creek was fine.

I am returning to Alaska and will leave Tucson in a few days to head north. If you keep an eye on my other post I will be writing about the conditions as I go. Although I don't expect any major problems. I will be passing through there about mid March.