Most remote village on the road system (Fairbanks, Barrow: living in, costs)

[bus man]

Originally Posted by It is 57 below zero

I don't know of any other state that has a community with no road, except maybe Key West, which is an island south of the Florida mainland. If you can find another state that has a town with no road access, let me know.

Key West is connected to the Florida mainland via U.S. 1, the Overseas Highway. If you ever find yourself down that way, it's well worth a drive. The closest Alaska analogy I can think of is if they built a road connecting the various Aleutian Islands with each other.

However, there are a number of islands off the New England coast that do not have any road access to the mainland. What does connect them is a network of car ferries, and in some cases commercial air routes (using small propeller planes). So it's not quite the same as having no road access whatsoever, because it is certainly possible to drive a car from the mainland highway network to those locations, via the ferries.

[bus man]

Originally Posted by Metlakatla

Another reason is that building roads on permafrost is substantially more challenging that building roads on most other types of terrain.

This is something that I've wondered about. I would assume that the region through which the Dalton Highway passes includes tundra, does it not? And yet, that road exists, and IIRC is open to traffic throughout the year. Naturally, it made economic sense to build it (to maintain the pipeline, etc.), or else it wouldn't have happened. But my point is, it did get built. Somehow they figured out how to build and maintain an all-season road through the tundra.

Suppose I wanted to build a road from Fairbanks up to Barrow. (Or, more than likely if such a thing ever happened in real life, an offshoot of the Dalton Highway from somewhere near Coldfoot up to Barrow.) Pretend for the moment that economic considerations are not a factor. My question is, would it be feasible from an engineering point of view to build and maintain such a road?

[akpls]

From strictly an engineering point of view....yes. But it would be expensive.

[Metlakatla]

Especially now that the permafrost is melting.

Melting Permafrost Threatens Infrastructure, Homes | Alaska Public Media

[Haolejohn]

The Dalton highway is talked about. Anyone not
From Alaska know how long it is? Longer than 400 miles. Only a 1/4 is paved roughly. Not only that sections of the road aren't suitable for cars or motorcycles. Can we really classify the road as a road. What did it cost to build? I have no idea. I do know that this past spring the road was flooded and it cost over 15 million to repair. Chew on that.

[BarrowWx]

Originally, Shell was trying to make a deal with Barrow to build a pipeline with a service road from Barrow to Prudhoe...they couldn't come to an agreement so Shell made a deal with Wainwright and will be building the pipeline there and connecting it to the main line way south of Prudhoe. If you are a really good at searching, you will find the minutes to the meeting on a Shell website. Residents of Wainwright are given permission to use the road to get to Dalton and will allow trucks to bring goods to Wainwright.

Shell will retain full ownership of the new service road and will maintain it throughout the year.

[akpls]

Originally Posted by Haolejohn

The Dalton highway is talked about. Anyone not
From Alaska know how long it is? Longer than 400 miles. Only a 1/4 is paved roughly. Not only that sections of the road aren't suitable for cars or motorcycles. Can we really classify the road as a road. What did it cost to build? I have no idea. I do know that this past spring the road was flooded and it cost over 15 million to repair. Chew on that.

It is 414 miles long. DOT has had several projects a year on the Dalton for a while now to upgrade it, and that appears to be continuing for at least the next few years. Cars and motorcycles can and do handle the Dalton without too much difficulty. The main problem for small cars and motorcycles is the extremely high amount of heavy truck traffic.

[Music_Man]

Originally Posted by akpls

It is 414 miles long. DOT has had several projects a year on the Dalton for a while now to upgrade it, and that appears to be continuing for at least the next few years. Cars and motorcycles can and do handle the Dalton without too much difficulty. The main problem for small cars and motorcycles is the extremely high amount of heavy truck traffic.

With how many gas stations?

[akpls]

Originally Posted by Music_Man

With how many gas stations?

One at Coldfoot for sure. There used to be one at the Yukon River bridge, but I'm not sure of the status of that one. That's it.....probably only one, maybe two for the entire 414 miles.

Edit: According to their website, there is fuel at the Yukon River bridge. http://www.yukonrivercamp.com/services/

[It is 57 below zero]

Originally Posted by akpls

One at Coldfoot for sure. There used to be one at the Yukon River bridge, but I'm not sure of the status of that one. That's it.....probably only one, maybe two for the entire 414 miles.

After Coldfoot, there aren't any resources for a long while (about 250 miles I think?) on the highway until the northern end of it reached at Deadhorse. That's easily over 4 hours, and all I can say is be very well prepared. Try not to go alone if you can help it, or at least notify someone where you are. Bring extra supplies (including extra gas tanks) if you need to.

Coldfoot also is (or used to be) a train stop, so that's an isolated town with surface transportation for sure.