Alaska Route 1
Alaska Route 1 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
Route 1 highlighted in red | ||||
| Route information | ||||
| Maintained by Alaska DOT&PF | ||||
| Length | 545.92 mi[1] (878.57 km) | |||
| Major junctions | ||||
| West end |  Alaska Marine Highway in Homer | |||
| ||||
| East end |  AK-2 at Tok | |||
| Location | ||||
| Country | United States | |||
| State | Alaska | |||
| Boroughs | Kenai Peninsula, Municipality of Anchorage, Matanuska-Susitna, Unorganized | |||
| Highway system | ||||
| ||||
Alaska Route 1 (AK-1) is a state highway in the southern part of the U.S. state of Alaska. It runs from Homer northeast and east to Tok by way of Anchorage. It is one of two routes in Alaska to contain significant portions of freeway: the Seward Highway in south Anchorage and the Glenn Highway between Anchorage and Palmer.
AK-1 is also known by the named highways it traverses:
- Sterling Highway from Homer to Tern Lake Junction
- Seward Highway from Tern Lake Junction to Anchorage
- Glenn Highway from Anchorage to Glennallen
- Richardson Highway from Glennallen and Gakona Junction
- Tok Cut-Off from Gakona Junction to Tok
Route description
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AK-1 begins at the Alaska Marine Highway's Homer Ferry Terminal at the tip of Homer Spit just south of the end of the Sterling Highway in Homer. It follows the entire Sterling Highway through Soldotna to the junction with the Seward Highway north of Seward, where it meets the north end of AK-9. There it turns north and follows the Seward Highway to its end in Anchorage, and follows the one-way pairs of Ingra and Gambell Streets and 6th and 5th Avenues, continuing east on 5th Avenue to the beginning of the Glenn Highway. AK-1 follows the entire length of the Glenn Highway, passing the south end of the George Parks Highway (AK-3) near Wasilla and meeting the Richardson Highway (AK-4) near Glennallen. A short concurrency north along AK-4 takes AK-1 to the Tok Cut-Off, which it follows northeast to its end at the Alaska Highway (AK-2) at Tok.[2][3]
The majority of AK-1 is part of the Interstate Highway System; only the route between Homer and Soldotna does not carry an unsigned Interstate designation. The entire length of A-3 follows AK-1 from the Kenai Spur Highway in Soldotna to the turn in downtown Anchorage; there A-1 begins, running to Tok along AK-1. (A-1 continues to the Yukon border along AK-2, the Alaska Highway.)[4][5] Only a short portion of the Seward Highway south of downtown Anchorage and a longer portion of the Glenn Highway northeast to AK-3 are built to freeway standards; the proposed Highway to Highway Connection would link these through downtown.
Major intersections
All exits are unnumbered.
| Borough | Location | mi[1] | km | Destinations | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kenai Peninsula | Homer | 0.00 | 0.00 | Land's End Resort | Dead end |
| 0.09 | 0.14 | Homer Ferry Terminal | To Alaska Marine Highway | ||
| Heath Street | Southern terminus of Sterling Highway | ||||
| Soldotna | 81.03 | 130.41 | Kenai Spur Highway north – Kenai | Southern terminus of Interstate A3 | |
| Chugach National Forest | 138.18 | 222.38 |   AK-9 south (Seward Highway) – Seward | Northern terminus of AK-9; AK-1 transitions to Seward Highway | |
| Hope Highway north – Hope | |||||
| Municipality of Anchorage | 179.72 | 289.23 | Portage Glacier Road east – Whittier, Portage Glacier | ||
| Old Seward Highway north | |||||
| 218.39 | 351.46 | Southern terminus of freeway section | |||
| 218.81 | 352.14 | Old Seward Highway / Rabbit Creek Road | |||
| 219.37 | 353.04 | DeArmoun Road | Southbound exit and northbound entrance | ||
| 220.48 | 354.83 | Huffman Road | |||
| 221.45 | 356.39 |  O'Malley Road | To Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport | ||
| 222.96 | 358.82 | Dimond Boulevard | |||
| 223.66 | 359.95 | 76th Avenue | Southbound exit and northbound entrance | ||
| 224.46 | 361.23 | Dowling Road | Dumbbell interchange | ||
| 225.46 | 362.84 | Tudor Road | |||
| 226.01 | 363.73 | ||||
| Old Seward Highway south | Interchange; southbound exit only | ||||
| Northern terminus of freeway section | |||||
| 20th Avenue | Northern terminus of Seward Highway | ||||
| Mountain View Drive | Southern terminus of Glenn Highway | ||||
| Southern terminus of freeway section | |||||
| 230.04 | 370.21 | Bragaw Street | |||
| 231.08 | 371.89 | Boniface Parkway / Mountain View Drive – JBER-Elmendorf | |||
| 231.84 | 373.11 | Turpin Street | Northbound exit and entrance | ||
| 232.66 | 374.43 | Muldoon Road | DDI interchange | ||
| 234.22 | 376.94 | Arctic Valley Road | Northbound exit and southbound entrance | ||
| 235.71 | 379.34 | JBER-Richardson, Arctic Valley | Via D Street | ||
| 239.70 | 385.76 | Eagle River Loop Road / Hiland Road | |||
| 241.45 | 388.58 | Eagle River | Via Old Glenn Highway | ||
| 243.30 | 391.55 | North Eagle River | Via North Eagle River Access Road | ||
| 245.31 | 394.79 | South Birchwood | Via South Birchwood Loop Road | ||
| 248.73 | 400.29 | North Birchwood | Via Birchwood Loop Road | ||
| 249.73 | 401.90 | Peters Creek | Via Voyles Boulevard | ||
| 250.75 | 403.54 | North Peters Creek | Via Lake Hill Drive | ||
| 252.03 | 405.60 | Mirror Lake | Via Old Glenn Highway and Paradis Lane | ||
| 253.17 | 407.44 | Thunderbird Falls | Via Old Glenn Highway; northbound exit and entrance | ||
| 254.05 | 408.85 | Eklutna | Via Eklutna Village Road | ||
| 257.57 | 414.52 | Old Glenn Highway | |||
| Knik River | SFC James Bondsteel Bridge of Honor | ||||
| Matanuska-Susitna | | 259.06 | 416.92 | Knik River Access | |
| Palmer | 263.32 | 423.77 |   AK-3 north – Wasilla, Fairbanks | Southern terminus of AK-3 (George Parks Highway) | |
| Northern terminus of freeway section | |||||
| Palmer-Wasilla Highway / Evergreen Avenue | |||||
| Unorganized | Glennallen | 409.54 | 659.09 |  AK-4 south (Richardson Highway) – Valdez | Southern terminus of AK-4 concurrency; northern terminus of Glenn Highway and Interstate A3 |
| Gakona | 423.54 | 681.62 | AK-4 north (Richardson Highway) – Fairbanks | Northern terminus of AK-4 concurrency; southern terminus of Tok Cutoff Highway | |
| Tok | 545.92 | 878.57 | AK-2 (Alaska Highway) – Fairbanks, Canadian Border | ||
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi
| |||||
Tok Cut-Off
Tok Cut-Off | |
|---|---|
| Location | Gakona—Tok |
| Length | 125 mi (201 km) |
| Existed | c. 1940–present |
| NHS | Entire route |
The Tok Cut-Off is a highway in the U.S. state of Alaska, running 125 miles (201 km) from Gakona (on the Richardson Highway, 14 miles (23 km) north of Glennallen), to Tok on the Alaska Highway which had been constructed from Montana through Calgary, Alberta, through Whitehorse, Canada by Army engineers to move supplies and equipment, and to build airbases, to service the requirements of the Pacific theater, including transport of Lend Lease aircraft to the Soviet Union after its invasion by Germany.
The road was built in the 1940s through challenging terrain, largely by battalions of Black engineers, including the 97th Engineer Battalion.[6] in order to facilitate transport of World War II materiel in particular from ports such as Valdez and Anchorage to the interior. It was upgraded in the 1950s to better connect the Richardson Highway more directly with Tok. It was called a "cut-off" because it allowed motor traffic coming to and from Canada on the Alaska Highway, to drive directly northeast or southwest connect to or from Southcentral Alaska communities without driving all the way to or from the terminus of the Alaska highway in Delta Junction, then traveling northwest or southeast by the Richardson Highway, reducing 120 miles (190 km) from the trip.
The 2002 Denali earthquake caused significant damage to the Cut-Off, particularly between mileposts 75 and 83 where major cracks and embankment slumping left the roadway fundamentally destroyed.[7][8]
References
- ^ a b Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, Central Region General Log[permanent dead link], April 25, 2006 (Routes 110000 (Sterling Highway), 130000 (Seward Highway), 134150 (Ingra Street), 134600 (6th Avenue), 134440 (5th Avenue), and 135000 (Glenn Highway))
Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, Northern Region General Log[permanent dead link], April 25, 2006 (Routes 135000 (Glenn Highway), 190000 (Richardson Highway), and 230000 (Tok Cut-Off Highway)) - ^ Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, National Highway System Maps Archived 2009-07-27 at the Wayback Machine, April 2006
- ^ Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, Alaska Traffic Manual Supplement Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine, January 17, 2003
- ^ Federal Highway Administration, National Highway System Viewer Archived 2007-08-27 at the Wayback Machine, accessed August 2007
- ^ Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, Dwight D. Eisenhower Interstate Routes Archived 2009-07-27 at the Wayback Machine, April 2006
- ^ BUILDING THE ALASKA HIGHWAY Race and the Army During World War II, WGBH-TV. Retrieved July 26, 2022.
- ^ Mark Yashinsky, ed. (2004). Denali, Alaska, Earthquake of November 3, 2002. Reston, VA: ASCE, TCLEE. ISBN 9780784407479. Archived from the original on 2013-12-31.
- ^ Kagachi, Chihiro (2010). Last Frontier: A History of Alaska. London: Penguin.