As big training exercise ends, military convoys again hit the road

KUAC | By Tim Ellis

Published March 23, 2022 at 12:35 PM AKDT

Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Trucks will be among the vehicles that will be returning to their units' home installation in convoys that will begin tomorrow. The HEMTTs and numerous other military vehicles were brought to the Donnelly Training Area near Fort Greely to be used during the Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center 22-02 field training exercise.

Long, slow-moving convoys to use Richardson, Parks and Glenn highways for return trip to Fort Wainright, JBER

The Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center training exercise ends Thursday, and the thousands of military personnel who participated will begin heading back to their installations that same day. That means motorists should again expect to encounter those long, slow-moving convoys of Army vehicles on the Richardson Highway – this time, going the other direction.

Motorists also will see Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, or MRAPs, like these when they encounter convoys on their way back from JPMRC 22-02.

“There’s going to be some military traffic continuing all the way through the 28^th on the Richardson Highway, and it’s moving from the Donnelly Training Area to Fort Wainwright,” says Danielle Tessen, a state Department of Transportation spokesperson.

Tessen says Army officials advise there will be heavy convoy traffic during that time. And also during a second series of convoys that begins Friday for soldiers and equipment headed back to Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson. And she said they’ll be taking both routes back to JBER.

“From what we’re understanding, they’ll be along the Glenn and the Parks,” she said in an interview Tuesday.

That means those convoys will be traveling through next week over both the Parks Highway from Fort Wainwright, and also the Richardson Highway from the Donnelly Training Center to Glennallen, and then the Glenn Highway to JBER.

A U.S. Army Alaska spokesperson said in an email Wednesday that only a few convoys will travel over the Richardson-Glenn route to JBER. Most will go Fort Wainwright, and then those based at JBER will continue the return trip over the Parks Highway.

Tessen says DOT will update its traveler-advisory website, 511.alaska.gov, as it gets information from the military.

Editor’s note: this story has been revised to include additional information about the convoys provided Wednesday by U.S. Army Alaska.