Airfield striping begins at Deadhorse Airport as borrow haul nears end

Airfield striping began overnight at Deadhorse Airport. The contractor is close to finishing the haul of borrow material to the Phase 3D infield areas on the east side of the airport, the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities said Monday in its Northern Region construction update.

Deadhorse is the aviation gateway for oil and gas and pipeline corridor workers on the North Slope. Paving continues at the taxiway culvert crossings.

The work is part of a package that fills infield ponds next to the runway and apron, replaces failing culverts, improves drainage along Deadhorse Drive and builds a wildlife perimeter fence with a service road around the airfield. The federal permitting dashboard describes the purpose plainly: the department proposes "to address safety, drainage and wildlife conflict deficiencies via replacing culverts, improving drainage and adding perimeter fencing."

The fence runs 20,000 feet. The project places 722,700 cubic yards of gravel and fills 78.6 acres of wetlands and waters of the United States. In its water quality certification application, the department proposed no compensatory mitigation for that loss, citing the absence of mitigation banks or in-lieu-fee programs in the area. The Federal Aviation Administration issued a finding of no significant impact on Sept. 1, 2023, and funds the work through the Airport Improvement Program. Environmental review and permitting were completed in July 2024.

Contractors installed 3,500 linear feet of insulation board for the perimeter fence earlier in the season. First paving operations were tentatively set for mid-July on the temporary Alaska Airlines taxiway, along with culvert patching on Taxiways A and B. Weather delays hit earlier in the short Arctic construction window.

In a June 2026 Alaska DOT&PF update on the tentative advertising schedule, Albert Bock of the Northern Region said a separate Deadhorse Airport project listed for June 2027 was pulled from the schedule. "It was kind of like a ghost in the system," Bock said, because the work was already coordinated with the fence project under construction.

Project records on file list different timelines. The environmental document anticipated drainage and fence construction running into fall 2026, while the bid notice sets a completion date of Oct. 31, 2027.