Crews dug out Alaska's remote seasonal highways for summer, meeting in the middle of the Denali

Alaska's transportation department has cleared its remote Northern Region highways for the summer, a yearly job on roads that get no winter maintenance and sit closed until spring. A $1.25 million federal grant paid for the work.

The clearing is not just about getting cars through. Crews cut the snow and ice off the road and thaw the culverts beneath it, so that when the deep snowpack melts, the water drains instead of pooling and washing out the roadbed. On these high, remote routes the snow lingers late, and clearing it opens the roads in time for the short Alaska summer rather than waiting on the melt.

On the Denali Highway, crews started from both ends of the 135-mile road and met in the middle on May 1, opening it May 7. Getting it open each season "takes a lot of coordination and patience," said Jason Ludington, the department's Denali District maintenance superintendent.

The work covered the Denali, Taylor and Top of the World highways and about a dozen other remote routes, many of them around Nome and the eastern Interior.