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An
old horse-drawn grader (shown in the drawing) sits at the Alaska Department of
Transportation offices on Peger Road in Fairbanks. Built by Western Wheeled Scraper in
Aurora, Illinois, it is probably one of the earliest graders still in existence
in Alaska, dating from about 1900. (The design was patented in 1898.) It’s an amazing machine, and incorporates
most of the movements standard on modern motorized graders. Of course,
everything on the grader was operated by hand and it must have taken a burly
operator.
It
was utilized by the Alaska Road Commission (ARC), the entity responsible for trail
and road construction throughout Alaska from 1905 to 1960. Prior to the ARC’s
creation, the federal government, through several laws, had tried building
roads in the territory. Each attempt proved
inadequate, in part because the government did not take an active role or provide
direct funding.
The
Nelson Act of 1905 changed that with the establishment of the “Board of Road
Commissioners for Alaska” (more commonly called the Alaska Road Commission).
The ARC, under the authority of the War Department, was tasked with
constructing and maintaining trails and roads in the territory, and was overseen (at least in its early years) by a board of
three Army officers. Its first chairman was Brigadier General Wilds P. Richardson.
The commission was funded through a
combination of fees and direct appropriations from
Congress.
The ARC began work immediately--flagging
winter trails, upgrading and blazing new trails, and constructing roads. The
early years were arduous, with the ARC having to deal with permafrost, rugged
terrain, and seasonally swollen streams. In permafrost areas, corduroy roads
were constructed (logs were laid perpendicular to the roadway and covered by
gravel). Bridge building was avoided by
fording small streams and using ferries to cross major rivers (such as the
Tanana at Big Delta). One of its earliest projects was upgrading the
Fairbanks-Valdez trail to a wagon road (completed by 1910).
In 1932 the ARC was transferred to
the Department of the Interior. By that time it had constructed over 1,000
miles of roads, and over 4,000 miles of trails. The Bureau of Public Roads, which eventually
became the Federal Highway Administration, assumed responsibility for the ARC
in 1956--an important milestone since it could now receive federal funds under
the Federal Aid Highway Act. In 1960 the ARC was transferred to the new State
of Alaska, becoming the Alaska State Highway Department.
Many of Alaska’s historic highways are
named for Road Commission officers instrumental in their construction: the
Richardson for Brigadier General Wilds Richardson, the Steese for Colonel James
Steese, the Elliott for Major Malcolm Elliott, the Edgerton for Major General
Glen Edgerton, and the Taylor for ARC president Ike Taylor.
When the State assumed the ARC’s
responsibilities, it took over the maintenance of about 3,000 miles of roads,
most constructed by the commission. Although the ARC
is gone, its equipment and buildings can still be seen at places such as Big Delta State Historical Park, or scattered along roadsides across the state.
