The Daily Alaska Empire

GLACIAL ICE SCOOTS HIM OFF ROAD, BUT PASS NEGOTIATED

Driving over 865 miles of the Alaska Road Commission's highway system in the dead of winter and going off the road only four times is related by D. H. Miller, chief of the ARC's administrative division.

Miller returned this weekend after a ten-day argosy over the rugged Thompson Pass near Valdez, the Tok Cutoff, the Glenn Highway, and a portion of the Alaska Highway leading into Fairbanks.

Glacial ice, formed by underground water seeping to the surface and freezing, caused the car to skid into no-man's land, he said.

These stretches are perhaps only 20 yards long, or a few feet, but when a car hits them, everything goes every which way.

The pass leading into Valdez was negotiated in good time, and by radio control. Every 20 miles or so a radio station is located on the road, and as a car passes, its time and probable speed are radioed to the next station. If the vehicle doesn't show up in the expected time, a search goes on immediately.

In this manner, little danger lies in wait for the winter motorist, Miller said.

Snow plows with 11-foot wing blades, and types of rotary blowers are going constantly in the pass, kept clear in a cooperative action by the Alaska Freight Lines and the Road Commission. It has closed briefly only two days this winter.

Truck convoys leave Valdez every two hours, and Miller, driven over the entire route by S. L. Lundwall commission cost engineer, attached himself to one of these on their northward trek.

He flew to Nome and inspected a new depot recently erected there, and while at Fairbanks he looked over ship facilities.