One lane of Koyokuk River bridge to remain open during day; 2-day Elliott Hwy closure set for Monday, Tuesday
The State Department of Transportation will begin overnight closures of the Dalton Highway tonight to make someemergency repairs on the Koyukuk River bridge at milepost 188, near Coldfoot.
“So from 9 p.m. to 9 a.m. every night, the bridge will be closed for the next two weeks,” says John Perreault, a DOT spokesperson.
Perreault says one southbound lane of the bridge will be open to traffic during the day, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. He says the contractor will replace bent girders and vertical supports that engineers think were damaged by river ice and debris.
“The work they’re going to do is install new girders and piers on either side of the damaged ones,” he said Tuesday. “That should make it more resilient, and those new piers will be stronger and kind of more up to modern codes.”
Meanwhile, DOT and a contractor are nearing completion of repairs on another stretch of the Dalton farther to the north, at milepost 403.5, near the end of the road.
“That seems to be under control,” he said, “and we are beginning to get ready to go back to two lanes there.”
DOT also will be working on a smaller bridge around Hess Creek, from milepost 20 to 29. An advisory on DOT’s 511.alaska.gov traveler information webpage says the work will affect traffic from both directions through this weekend. Motorists and bicyclists should expect 24-hour flagging and pilot-car operations in that area.
The Dalton is the only overland route to Prudhoe Bay and other adjacent oilfields.
Over on the Elliott Highway, DOT is preparing to begin repairs near milepost 85, where a culvert collapsed. Perrault says water has washed-out one lane of the highway, so traffic has been diverted into the other lane. He says the highway will be closed on Monday and Tuesday to fix the problem.
“That will give the contractor time to excavate all the way down to the collapsed culvert, remove it, place the new one and then replace the roadbed back up to grade.”
Fairbanks-based Great Northwest is the contractor for the Elliott Highway project.
