Km 87 - Seltat

Early Travel and Maintenance

The Haines Road, constructed by the U.S. Public Roads Administration in 1943, was a basic haul road. It was built in a hurry as an emergency supply line and project engineers chose the easiest route, ignoring local advice about trouble spots. According to one Haines resident, "They learned later that there are a number of places where experience is more important than science."

The road saw little maintenance over the next year. Fighting had ended in the Aleutians and the Haines road was no longer a military priority. The crews who re-opened the road in 1945 found several wash-outs, a large slide at mile 45, and collapsed bridges on the Klehini and Blanchard Rivers. Maintenance work over the next few years required much re-routing around trouble spots.

Driving the road remained a challenge due to the narrow roadway, hairpin turns, and the steep ascent to the summit. In 1977, the United States and Canada signed an agreement, the Shakwak Project, to improve the highway corridor from the U.S. border to Beaver Creek, Yukon. The United States spent $83,485,000 Canadian funds for the Haines Road reconstruction. Canada managed the project and Canadians and Americans did the work. Between 1978 and 1990, the Haines Road was relocated and surfaced creating a modern highway capable of bearing year-round heavy truck traffic.

Checkpoints

The Haines Road winds through a mountain pass infamous for severe storms. At times, the roadbed disappears under drifting snow, while blizzards or dense fog can reduce visibility to nothing.

Since 1963, when the road was first opened for winter travel, various measures have been taken to make the road safer for travellers. These include survival shelters and tall poles set along the edge of the road to mark the location of the roadway under deep snow. From 1963 to 1974, there were also five staffed checkpoints along the road. The driver checked in at each station, and word of his coming was radioed ahead to the next point. If the vehicle did not reach the next checkpoint in a reasonable amount of time, a search party was dispatched.

Today's traveller does not face the same hazards. During heavy snowstorms, drivers are stopped at either the US/Canada border at Pleasant Camp or at Haines Junction, until maintenance crews have cleared the road.

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