Yukon government on its own to maintain north Alaska highway
The Yukon government is desperately looking for money from the United States to help maintain the north Alaska Highway.
Since 1977, the U.S. has helped pay for maintaining the stretch of highway between Haines, southeast Alaska, and Beaver Creek, Yukon, contributing over $400 million over those decades.
But that agreement has since expired, leaving the territory to pay for the road on its own.
Yukon Minister of Highways and Public Works Richard Mostyn says the Alaska Highway is vitally important for all the goods being trucked into Alaska.
“There’s no two ways about it, it is a very important conduit for the continent,” he said. “It is the sole highway access to Alaska, to Anchorage, to Fairbanks.”
Mostyn says without the pot of American money to repair and maintain the section of highway, Yukon is in a tight spot.
“We are a territory that is half the size of B.C. [the province of British Columbia], with the tax base of Campbell River [a B.C. community with a population of about 35,000],” he said.
“It is a very small territory, population-wise, we simply do not have the resources to keep that highway in the north to the industrial grade that’s demanded by the United States.”
Highway needs work
Mostyn says the north highway needs hundreds of millions of dollars worth of work.
“The climate is warming and the road is degrading on a regular basis,” Mostyn said. “I doubt the Yukon is going to be able to maintain it to a standard to which Alaskans have come to depend.
“The territory simply does not have hundreds of millions of dollars.”
Mostyn said the government will “do what it can” to maintain the road.
But he adds that’s very challenging, especially after the United States rejected a funding proposal for $25 million.
“We have no support from Alaska or Washington, we have applied for money from Washington, unfortunately, that bid didn’t get chosen.”
Mostyn says he’ll meet with his counterparts in Alaska to try and find money from Washington.
With files from Nancy Thomson and Dave White
Related stories from around the North:
Canada: Northern Canada: Construction of all-season road to isolated Indigenous community to begin this fall, CBC News
Faroes: Underwater tunnels revolutionize transport in the Faroe Islands, Cryopolitics Blog
Finland: Finland takes another step towards building Arctic rail link, The Independent Barents Observer
Norway: Railway linking Barents Sea coast to Arctic Finland not commercially viable, report says, The Independent Barents Observer
Russia: Smelters, huskies, and fish pies: the Arctic road from Norway to Russia, The Independent Barents Observer
Sweden: Growing number of Swedes choose train travel over flying to reduce pollution, Radio Sweden
United States: Trump claims Alaska wildlife refuge road ‘almost completed’… but is it?, Alaska Public Media
