Tractor trailer closes Dalton Highway at mile 320

A tractor trailer is blocking the Dalton Highway at mile 320 in both directions, leaving truckers and other drivers headed to or from the North Slope facing a wait of hours.

Alaska 511 posted the closure at 7:38 a.m. Tuesday, September 29. The stretch is known as Oil Spill Hill. The listing says the closure "is anticipated to last multiple hours." The planned end time is 9:39 p.m. Tuesday.

The Alaska 511 listing includes no information on injuries. It does not say why the truck is blocking the road or who was driving. Alaska 511 last updated the listing at 7:43 a.m.

The Dalton has no cell phone reception, so crews must drive back to a maintenance camp and phone Fairbanks before conditions reach 511, according to the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (DOT&PF). The staff who enter them work weekday hours, and the department says that makes it difficult to update drivers as quickly as most expect.

The Dalton is the only surface route linking Alaska's road system with the Arctic and the North Slope, according to a federal research record on the highway. The road was built in 1974 to support construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline and access to the northern oil fields. It did not open to public travel until 1994. Most of its traffic is commercial trucks carrying fuel, equipment and supplies to the oil fields, DOT&PF says.

Flooding in 2015 closed it for 28 days, according to the department.

Alaska 511 lists the closure at 511.alaska.gov, where DOT&PF also suggests checking road cameras and weather forecasts.