ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Alaska transportation officials used artillery fire and heavy equipment Wednesday to begin clearing avalanches that left two semi tractor-trailers buried in snow on the nation’s northernmost highway.
The Dalton Highway, a gravel road that runs parallel to the trans-Alaska pipeline, was closed Monday night after avalanches in Atigun Pass, the passageway through the Brooks Range that reaches 3,700 feet.
Challenges of driving in Atigun Pass were documented in episodes of “Ice Road Truckers,” the reality television show created by the History Channel. Truckers face steep climbs and descents, switchbacks and mountain edges.
Road maintenance workers fired artillery shells onto mountainsides to knock down loose snow susceptible to falling, said Meadow Bailey, spokeswoman for the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities.
When the threat of additional avalanches clears, she said, crews will move in with industrial snow blowers, graders and loaders to remove snow. Bailey on Wednesday said it was too soon to know when the road would reopen.
One avalanche Monday hit four semis. Two big rigs were able to drive out but two others remain in the pass, Bailey said. The drivers were evacuated.
One remaining truck carried methanol and the other carried glycol. State environmental officials will determine if they were damaged and leaking.
The trucks were hit by the avalanche and an estimated 22 inches of snow that fell during a storm that continued into Tuesday. Snow that descended from the artillery fire also will affect the trucks, Bailey said.
“They’ll need to be dug out,” Bailey said.
Temperatures routinely fall to -30 to -40 degrees. The road in the pass crosses more than 40 avalanche paths. The edge of the road, Bailey said, is marked by delineators tall enough to be seen above accumulated or blowing snow.
“Most of the people who drive it are, obviously, professionals with a lot of experience,” she said.
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