(FAIRBANKS, Alaska) – At 12 a.m. this morning, the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (ADOT&PF) closed the Dalton Highway at MP 394-403 due to extreme flooding of the road. Water up to 2 feet deep has been reported over the road, and with warm temperatures forecast through this week, the water level is expected to continue to rise. The road is anticipated to remain closed until after the water levels crest; hydrologists with ADOT&PF and the University of Alaska Fairbanks expect this to happen late this week.

Additional resources are joining ADOT&PF staff; personnel and equipment from Cruz Construction will be on site today. The goal will be to try to protect the road surface from erosion by installing culverts and building berms to divert the water to the culverts.

In mid-March, this section of the Dalton Highway was flooded with ice and water. The impacted areas continued to expand, and the depth of the ice and water continued to increase. On April 7, Gov. Walker declared the Dalton Highway a state disaster.

A Unified Incident Command was established last month to assist with the Dalton Highway flooding response. The Unified Incident Command consists of: ADOT&PF, Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., BP, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil and the North Slope Borough. The group is in frequent contact and is coordinating efforts.  

Updates on the Dalton Highway are being posted in these locations:

• Dalton website, with photos: dot.alaska.gov/nreg/dalton-updates/
• Travel conditions: 511.alaska.gov or call 511
• ADOT&PF Facebook: www.facebook.com/AlaskaDOTPF
• ADOT&PF Twitter: @AlaskaDOTPF
• ADOT&PF Flickr: https://flic.kr/s/aHskab652W

The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities oversees 237 airports, 9 ferries serving 35 communities along 3,500 marine miles, over 5,600 miles of highway and 839 public facilities throughout the state of Alaska. The mission of the department is to “Keep Alaska Moving through service and infrastructure.”

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