Road Conditions Alaska and Yukon
I'm heading South from having driven up through BC, Yukon and Alaska and now am between Whitehorse and Teslin heading South. Here is an update on some road conditions. First: Alaska. The Richardson fr...
Forum Discussion
sue.t wrote:
Yukon's government is saying if the US doesn't get back to contributing funding for the Shakwak section, then the only affordable option could be to leave it as a gravel highway again. The reason it was paved was because the US requested it so transport trucks could travel to Alaska easier.
Beaver Creek residents preferred the gravel highway because it could be maintained and weren't at all happy with the paving, which made it slower to drive into Whitehorse.
On our four trips up and down the highway, I was always stunned by the "requirement" of maintaining blacktop, or chipseal, on the road, especially from Tok to Destruction bay. It seems like we would get there just as the yearly rebuilding was wrapping up, and the northbound trip was pretty decent. A few months later, heading south, and it's a war zone, 20 MPH stretches of picking lines to avoid heaves, holes and long trenches. I can't imagine how many tens of millions have been wasted in a fruitless crusade of pretending that a blacktop road will last more than a few months. in some stretches?
