Dalton Highway
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| Dalton Highway |
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| Length: | 414 mi[citation needed] (666 km) | ||||||||
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| Formed: | 1974 | ||||||||
| South end: | |||||||||
| North end: | North Slope Borough near Deadhorse; service road extends to Prudhoe Bay | ||||||||
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The James W. Dalton Highway, usually Dalton Highway (Alaska Route 11) is a 414-mile (666 km) road in Alaska. It begins at the Elliott Highway, north of Fairbanks, and ends at Deadhorse near the Arctic Ocean and the Prudhoe Bay oil fields. Once called the North Slope Haul Road (a name by which it is still sometimes known), it was built as a supply road to support the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System in 1974.
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The highway, which directly parallels the pipeline, is one of the most isolated roads in the United States. There are no towns; the few settlements are truck stops. The 240 miles (384 km) from Coldfoot to Deadhorse have no services for travelers at all. The highway also comes to within a few miles of the Arctic Ocean. Beyond Deadhorse are private roads owned by oil companies, which are restricted to authorized vehicles only. There are, however, commercial tours that take people to the Arctic Ocean.
It is named for James Dalton, an Alaska-born engineer who supervised construction of the Distant Early Warning Line in Alaska and, as an expert in Arctic engineering, served as consultant in early oil exploration in northern Alaska.
- Mile 73 (km 118) Elliott Highway, mile 0 (km 0)
- TAPS Pump Station No. 6, mile 54 (km 87)
- E. L. Patton Yukon River bridge, mile 55 (km 90)
- Arctic Circle, mile 115 (km 185)
- Prospect Creek, site of the lowest recorded temperature in the United States, mile 135 (km 217)
- TAPS Pump Station No. 5, mile 137 (km 221)
- Coldfoot, mile 175 (km 282)
- Wiseman, mile 188 (km 304)
- Continental Divide (Atigun Pass, elevation 4,800ft/1,463m), mile 245 (km 394)
- TAPS Pump Station No. 4, mile 269 (km 433)
- TAPS Pump Station No. 3, mile 312 (km 502)
- TAPS Pump Station No. 2, mile 359 (km 577)
- Deadhorse, mile 414 (km 666)
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The highway and pipeline run generally parallel to each other; this segment is between the Arctic Circle and Coldfoot. |
The E. L. Patton Yukon River Bridge carries the highway over the Yukon River north of Fairbanks. |
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