Dalton Highway | ||||
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James W. Dalton Highway North Slope Haul Road |
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Route information | ||||
Maintained by Alaska DOT&PF | ||||
Length: | 414 mi (666 km) | |||
Existed: | 1974 – present | |||
Major junctions | ||||
South end: | AK-2 (Elliot Highway) near Livengood | |||
North end: | East Lake Colleen Drive in Deadhorse | |||
Location | ||||
Boroughs: | Unorganized, North Slope | |||
Highway system | ||||
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The James W. Dalton Highway, usually referred to as the Dalton Highway (and signed as 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. It is named after James Dalton, a lifelong Alaskan and an engineer who supervised construction of the Distant Early Warning Line in Alaska and, as an expert in Arctic engineering, served as a consultant in early oil exploration in northern Alaska.
The highway, which directly parallels the pipeline, is one of the most isolated roads in the United States. There are only three towns along the route: Coldfoot (pop 10) at Mile 175,Wiseman (pop 22) at Mile 188, and Deadhorse (25 permanent residents, 3,500-5,000 or more seasonal residents depending on oil production) at the end of the highway at Mile 414. Fuel is available at the E. L. Patton Yukon River Bridge (Mile 56), as well as Coldfoot and Deadhorse. Two other settlements, Prospect Creek and Galbraith Lake, are uninhabited except for campers and other short-term residents.