Road work delays

[treesah]

We'll be traveling from Anchorage to Talkeetna, Denali and Seward. I keep reading about road construction and major delays. Can somebody give me updated information? Worried about travel from Talkeetna to Denali National Park and getting there in time for our 9:30 am shuttle bus. Should we leave at 6:00 am or earlier?

 

Thanks in advance.

[Glaciers]

This site will give you information on road construction including possible delays in each area.

http://511.alaska.gov/alaska511/mappingcomponent/index

 

Looks like up to 1 hour delays at milepost 123 heading north to Denali. 6am might be ok but for us, we’d leave earlier.

[Northern Aurora]

Our local newspaper, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, has a columnist stationed in Healy, and she has been reporting extensively about the problems and delays around the Denali National Park entrance. She is reporting that at times (but as I understand her not all the time) it has taken about 1.5 hours to drive from her home (which apparently is very near the restaurant 229 Parks) to Healy; the normal time would be about 20 to 25 minutes.

 

Our Department of Transportation had a meeting this past spring with the businesses in the Denali area, and from reports of that meeting DOT had not anticipated such delays and disruption. But apparently three different construction companies won the bids for the three projects in that area, and by chance all three are working at the same time. The DOT spokesperson for the northern region has stated that this caught DOT by surprise; DOT had not anticipated that the work on the three projects would be simultaneous.

 

News reports last week stated that DOT, in response to the complaints from businesses in Denali and Healy, have asked the three construction companies to schedule work at night. Listening to a report on our local NPR radio station, which included a clip from the DOT spokesman, it was unclear to me if DOT could compel work at night.

 

It is also important to note that apparently these delays are not consistent. As I understand the reporting one day there will be virtually no delays, and then the next there could be a significant delay.

 

I will also note that we drove down to the park to spend a few days in June. The drive from Fairbanks took 45 minutes longer than normal, with all the delays between Healy and "glitter gulch." We drove back on a Sunday and the delays were minimal.

[Budget Queen]

We'll be traveling from Anchorage to Talkeetna, Denali and Seward. I keep reading about road construction and major delays. Can somebody give me updated information? Worried about travel from Talkeetna to Denali National Park and getting there in time for our 9:30 am shuttle bus. Should we leave at 6:00 am or earlier?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

If you haven't been there before, at least an hour earlier then your 6am thinking. I also suggest, it might just be better to change your bus to a later shuttle, small change fee involved.

 

Otherwise, you really need to allow 3.5 hours anyway for Talkeetna/Denali, with no construction.

 

I have personally been stuck for an hour a few times in construction. on each of the Parks, Glenn and Sterling.

 

You can NOT short the minimum times you have to allow in Alaska, with you having to be somewhere at a fixed time. There aren't any alternatives, or "back roads". I suggest you allow 5 hours, since you also, won't be automatic where you are going when you get to Denali, maybe using up more extra minutes.

[treesah]

Thank you so much for such prompt replies. We have switched our Denali sojourn to a Sunday.

[dcdisney]

For Anchorage to Seward we are taking a tour in that area and our tour provider called and moved our time up by 90 mins due to the delays they have been experiencing. He said it was averaging about an hour but sometimes more.