Alaska's rugged Dalton Highway reopened Sunday to limited traffic with 30 northbound trucks making the first crossing in a week to resupply Alaska North Slope oil fields.
A 6-mile stretch near the northern end of the road just south of Deadhorse had been impassible for a week because of unprecedented overflow from the Sagavanirktok River, commonly referred to as the Sag River, which runs parallel to the highway and the trans-Alaska pipeline.
The department reopened the road at 8:30 a.m. with 30 trucks carrying loads most critical to oil field operations.
"My understanding was that it was primarily food," said Meadow Bailey, spokeswoman for the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities.
After an inspection, 30 southbound trucks were allowed to make the trip. The trickle of trucks was a start but hundreds more loads were waiting in Fairbanks about 483 miles to the south to resupply oil field workers.
"They need food, they need fuel, they need general supplies," she said.
The 414-mile Dalton Highway is a mostly gravel road that starts 84 miles north of Fairbanks. Despite crossing hundreds of miles of Arctic and sub-Arctic tundra and the Brooks Range, the road rarely closes. Bailey said it had closed twice for 24 hours because of storms in her seven years with the Transportation Department.
Sag River overflow turned the highway 8 miles south of Deadhorse into an ice sheet. The road shut down for three days two weeks ago and for another seven days beginning April 5.
The river is shallow with braided channels that shift as they fill with deposits of sand or gravel. Department officials said a combination of cold, snow and wind likely caused ice to form on the bottom of the river, pushing water out of channels.
"As it's freezing on the bottom, it's pushing running water on the top," Bailey said.
The highway on both sides is marked with 5-foot delineators — posts with reflectors on the top — so that truckers can tell where the road edge is as they drive in snowy conditions. There's so much ice on the road, some delineators are sticking up only 1 foot and some are almost covered by ice and moving water, Bailey said.
"As far as you can see, it's an ice sheet," Bailey said. "You can't tell where the channels of the river are anymore."
Bailey by mid-afternoon did not know how many trucks had passed. Department officials said they would continue to alternate north- and southbound groups between inspections as long as road conditions remain stable.
Gov. Bill Walker declared a disaster last week, allowing contractors to work on overflow alongside state employees. The department reported Sunday there were 28 people and 26 pieces of equipment working to keep the road open.
Excavators worked off the road attempting to break ice and dig a diversion ditch to channel water away from the road. Side dump trucks were carrying in snow to build compacted berms to keep water off the road. Plows and graders attempted to widen the road.
The oil fields were not completely stranded. Flights continued to Deadhorse. Some companies used off-road trucks that can cross tundra to move fuel past the blocked road, Bailey said.
The temperature at Deadhorse just before 2 p.m. Sunday was 9 degrees with winds at 12 mph, according to the National Weather Service.
The road grade is scheduled to be raised 7 feet in a construction project this summer.
"Nothing like Mother Nature stressing the need for this project," Bailey said.