Seward Highway

The Seward Highway reopened at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, according to the Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities. DOT said the highway is open from Seward to Anchorage and the Whittier Tunnel is also open and operating on its published schedule. Winter driving conditions are still occurring along the highway with winds and limited visibility and additional snow is expected in the forecast. On Tuesday, a winter snow storm and two avalanches created extremely dangerous driving conditions prompting DOT to close the Seward Highway between Bird and Girdwood.

Drivers heading south on the Seward Highway will notice some changes. Effective Saturday night, southbound traffic between Tudor and Dowling will be routed onto Homer Drive frontage road. "We're replacing the existing bridges over Campbell Creek, there are four bridges there,” said DOT Regional Construction Engineer Tim Croghan. Work on the bridge was delayed because materials that arrived from the Lower 48 were not suitable for use. "There was an issue with the bearing pads that it meets specifications,” said Croghan.  “They've been installed on the Homer Drive Bridge, so that's why the switchover is taking place now. " The work is expected to last nearly a year, it's part of a larger scale project to widen the Seward Highway from four to six lanes.

A semi carrying several large pipes overturned on the southbound onramp of the Seward Highway at O'Malley Road Friday morning. APD says no one was injured, and the onramp remained open for much of the morning. APD says even though the driver of the semi was driving at a reasonable speed when when it turned to get on the onramp of the Seward Highway, witnesses saw some of the pipes he was carrying shift around when he made the turn, causing the truck to overturn. Because of that, APD says the driver of the truck will face a $300 fine for a load violation.

Alaska State Troopers say a 6-year-old boy suffered minor injuries Wednesday afternoon when he was struck by a car on the Seward Highway. Troopers received a report at about 12:45 p.m. that the boy had been hit and possibly suffered severe injuries near Mile 81.5 of the highway, in an area where the speed limit has been temporarily reduced from 65 mph to 45 mph due to a nearby hooligan fishery. An investigation found that Conrad Mentjes, 65, had been headed south at about 45 mph when the boy sprinted in front of his 2003 Toyota Corolla, which hit him and threw him a short distance.

A head on collision on the Seward Highway just before 5:00 pm Friday killed one person and sent another to the hospital. Alaska State Troopers say Anchorage police received a call reporting that the driver of a Toyota Tacoma travelling northbound on the highway was driving dangerously. According to Troopers the truck was driven by 28-year-old Aaron McMullen. The Tacoma collided with a Jeep Cherokee traveling south near mile 110. Troopers say the driver of the Jeep, 53-year-old John Caron of Girdwood, was killed in the crash and McMullen was taken to Providence Hospital in Anchorage.

by Megan Baldino Tuesday, May 18, 2010 ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- A serious collision injured two people Tuesday afternoon on the Seward Highway. The Anchorage Police Department says the driver of a white pickup truck traveling southbound didn't notice that the Ford Focus in front of them was stopping to make a left turn into the pull-out and slammed into the back of the Focus. The accident happened around 2:00 at Mile 116 along Potter Marsh. The driver of the pickup was fine, but the two people in the Focus were injured.

Alaska State Troopers say a man who ran away from troopers Monday afternoon,  eluding an evening search after troopers stopped a stolen vehicle with spike strips, was located and hospitalized Tuesday afternoon. According to a Tuesday AST dispatch, troopers were informed at about 1:30 p.m. that the suspect, 36-year-old James Lee III of Anchorage, had flagged down a motorist, claiming he'd wrecked a snowmachine in the backcountry and needed medical assistance. The driver took Lee to the Tesoro gas station in Girdwood -- the same building that houses Girdwood's AST post.

Seward Highway: Searching for Solutions (May 26, 2010)

An Anchorage man was stopped Monday afternoon after leading Alaska State Troopers on a high-speed motorcycle chase along the Seward Highway, which ended with his arrest on existing and new charges of driving with a suspended license. According to a Tuesday AST dispatch, Girdwood troopers with the Alaska Bureau of Highway Patrol tried at about 2:30 p.m. Monday to conduct a traffic stop on 31-year-old Ronald E. Owens Jr.'s motorcycle, near Mile 98 of the Seward Highway. Instead of stopping, however, Owens gunned the white-and-black 1997 Honda and took off headed north on the highway.

by Megan Baldino Monday, May 24, 2010 ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- The Seward Highway is a road that leads people to amazing and beautiful destinations every year. That is, if you make it to your destination. Public safety officials agree the Seward is the most dangerous highway in Alaska.  "It's the most beautiful drive in the world; it's also one of the most dangerous," said Girdwood Fire Chief William Chadwick. Police say a 19-year old female driver is lucky to be alive after speeding and losing control of her car on May 20, and flipping her car several times.

Drivers headed north on the New Seward Highway will need to slow to 45 mph until road construction there completes this fall. It's just another sign that construction season of Alaska is headed into full swing. Chong Kim, an Alaska Department of Transportion and Public Facilities project engineer, says the speed reduction -- which will take effect between Dowling Road and Tudor Road -- should prepare drivers for a June slowdown when northbound traffic is redirected over the southbound bridge. Kim says crews are currently leveling the approach to the southbound bridge that runs above Campbell Creek in Midtown.

Construction crews will ramp up work on the New Seward Highway starting Monday, April 22. Between Dowling Road and 36th Ave, drivers should be alert for reduced speeds of 45 mph. Nightly lane restrictions begin between 8:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. between Dowling Road and Tudor Road. There will also be daily and nightly lane restrictions and flagging operations on Brayton Drive, between Dowling Road and Tudor Road. Northbound traffic will eventually transfer into a new traffic pattern that is still being constructed.

The State of Alaska unveiled a broad-based $165 million plan Thursday to better protect drivers in safety corridors on the Seward Highway and three other heavily traveled Alaska roads, featuring a mix of improvements to roads, technology and law enforcement. Gov. Sean Parnell announced the Intelligent Transportation System initiative at the Alaska State Troopers post in Girdwood -- a focal point for troopers' responses to fatal crashes on the Seward, which claimed six lives in 2012.

Update : An Anchorage police officer was taken to the hospital for non-life threatening injuries Friday morning after another driver lost control and hit the officer's vehicle, according to the Anchorage Police Department. APD spokesperson Dani Myren said that Officer Nelson Price was responding to another vehicle crash reported near Seward Highway and Dowling Road around 8:30 a.m. Friday. Officer Price was traveling westbound on O'Malley with lights and sirens. Police said that traffic in the eastbound lanes slowed and yielded, however a white Ford Expedition lost control and slid sideways and directly into Officer Price's path.

Update (Feb. 1) : A Seward resident was killed in a crash near mile 105 on Thursday evening, according to Alaska State Troopers. Troopers said 44-year-old Douglas Fletcher was pronounced dead on the scene in a two-car collision near Indian on the Seward Highway. 24-year-old Maria Kobzeva, of Seward, was driving southbound on the highway in a Subaru station wagon and began to pass another vehicle and Fletcher was her passenger. Kobzeva struck a Mercedes sedan heading north, according to troopers.

A fatal vehicle crash momentarily closed the Seward Highway at Mile 111 near McHugh Creek on Wednesday afternoon, according to the Anchorage Police Department and Alaska State Troopers. AST Spokesperson Megan Peters said 55-year-old Elisha O'Hara III, of Anchorage, was killed in the crash shortly before 4:00 p.m. about a half mile south of McHugh Creek. Peters said that a red Hummer H3 ran off the roadway and hit a large rock and it appeared to cross on the north side of the road and went off the cliff side.

The Seward Highway was temporarily closed by two separate slides Monday morning between Anchorage and Girdwood, including one which saw a vehicle hit a rock that had landed on the highway. State officials say traffic is now moving on the highway. According to Alaska Department of Transportation spokesperson Rick Feller, a rockslide at Mile 106 near False Creek north of Indian at about 5:30 a.m. blocked the highway's northbound lane and partially obstructed the southbound lane. Alaska State Troopers spokesperson Megan Peters says shortly after the slide, a male driver hit a rock that it had left on the road.

A drunk driver was involved in a head-on Seward Highway collision near Girdwood Tuesday night that left three people injured, according to Alaska State Troopers. A Wednesday AST dispatch says troopers responded just before 8:50 p.m. to the crash, at the Seward's intersection with the Alyeska Highway. “Investigation revealed a 2002 Chevy pickup driven northbound by Christopher Shilling, age 36 of Seward, was hit head on by a Dodge pickup traveling southbound (by) Ralph Edward Adams, age 60 of Anchor Point,” troopers wrote.

Alaska State Troopers have identified two Anchorage men who were driving the vehicles involved in a head-on crash Sunday afternoon that injured nearly a dozen people, closing both lanes of the Seward Highway near Girdwood for almost three hours. A Monday AST dispatch says troopers received reports of a crash involving multiple vehicles at about 4:20 p.m. near Milepost 92, about three miles north of Girdwood. A Ford Expedition heading north and driven by 42-year-old Christopher Keffalos lost control due to snow and slush, crossing the center line and slamming into a Suzuki SUV driven by Ronald Myers, 56. There were a total of eight people inside the Expedition and three passengers were children.

(UPDATE: Alask State Troopers spokesperson Megan Peters says traffic is now slowly alternating. At 8:56 pm, the state's 511 website posted this traffic update: Intermittent delays - Slow traffic - Stop and go traffic.  Road is not closed intermittent delays, very slow traffic.) A three-vehicle crash has killed two people and closed the Seward Highway near Summit Lake Friday afternoon, according to Alaska State Troopers. AST spokesperson Megan Peters says troopers received word of the crash, at Mile 49 of the highway, at 4:40 p.m. A pickup truck and a Chevrolet Blazer collided head-on, at which point a GMC Yukon rear-ended the pickup truck.