Alaska Route 1 (AK-1) is a state highway in the southern part of the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S. ...

. It runs from

Homer Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...

northeast and east to Tok by way of Anchorage. It is one of two routes in Alaska to contain significant portions of

freeway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms ...

: the Seward Highway in south Anchorage and the Glenn Highway between Anchorage and Palmer. AK-1 is also known by the named highways it traverses: * Sterling Highway from

to Tern Lake Junction *

Seward Highway The Seward Highway is a highway in the U.S. state of Alaska that extends from Seward to Anchorage. It was completed in 1951 and runs through the scenic Kenai Peninsula, Chugach National Forest, Turnagain Arm, and Kenai Mountains. The Seward H ...

from Tern Lake Junction to Anchorage * Glenn Highway from Anchorage to Glennallen *

Richardson Highway The Richardson Highway is a highway in the U.S. state of Alaska, running 368 miles (562 km) and connecting Valdez to Fairbanks. It is marked as Alaska Route 4 from Valdez to Delta Junction and as Alaska Route 2 from there to Fairbanks. I ...

from Glennallen and Gakona Junction * Tok Cut-Off from Gakona Junction to Tok

Route description

AK-1 begins at the

Alaska Marine Highway The Alaska Marine Highway (AMH) or the Alaska Marine Highway System (AMHS) is a ferry service operated by the U.S. state of Alaska. It has its headquarters in Ketchikan, Alaska. The Alaska Marine Highway System operates along the south-central ...

Homer Ferry Terminal Homer ( Dena'ina: ''Tuggeght'') is a city in Kenai Peninsula Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. It is southwest of Anchorage. According to the 2020 Census, the population is 5,522, up from 5,003 in 2010. Long known as the "Halibut Fishing C ...

at the tip of

Homer Spit The Homer Spit ( Dena'ina: ''Uzintun'') is a geographical landmark located in Homer, Alaska on the southern tip of the Kenai Peninsula. The spit is a long piece of land jutting out into Kachemak Bay. The spit is also home to the Homer Boat Harbo ...

just south of the end of the Sterling Highway in

. It follows the entire Sterling Highway through

Soldotna Soldotna is a city in the Kenai Peninsula Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. At the 2020 census, the population was 4,342, up from 4,163 in 2010. It is the seat of the Kenai Peninsula Borough. Soldotna is located in the Southcentral portion ...

to the junction with the

north of Seward, where it meets the north end of

AK-9 The AK-9 is a Russian 9×39mm compact rifle. Its development began when Izhevsk Machine-Building Plant (IZHMASH), now known as Kalashnikov Concern started working on a new silent, flame-less, compact AK rifle in the early 2000s. When creating ...

. There it turns north and follows the Seward Highway to its end in Anchorage, and follows the

one-way pair A one-way pair, one-way couple, or couplet refers to that portion of a bi-directional traffic facilitysuch as a road, bus, streetcar, or light rail linewhere its opposing flows exist as two independent and roughly parallel facilities. Descripti ...

s of Ingra and Gambell Streets and 6th and 5th Avenues, continuing east on 5th Avenue to the beginning of the Glenn Highway. AK-1 follows the entire length of the Glenn Highway, passing the south end of the George Parks Highway ( AK-3) near

Wasilla Wasilla ( Dena'ina: ''Benteh'') is a city in Matanuska-Susitna Borough, United States and the fourth-largest city in Alaska. It is located on the northern point of Cook Inlet in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley of the southcentral part of the ...

and meeting the

( AK-4) near Glennallen. A short concurrency north along AK-4 takes AK-1 to the

Tok Cut-Off Alaska Route 1 (AK-1) is a state highway in the southern part of the U.S. state of Alaska. It runs from Homer northeast and east to Tok by way of Anchorage. It is one of two routes in Alaska to contain significant portions of freeway: the S ...

, which it follows northeast to its end at the Alaska Highway ( AK-2) at Tok. Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities
National Highway System Maps
, April 2006 Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities
Alaska Traffic Manual Supplement
, January 17, 2003 The majority of AK-1 is part of the

Interstate Highway System The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Highway System in the United States. T ...

; only the route between Homer and Soldotna does not carry an

unsigned Unsigned can refer to: * An unsigned artist is a musical artist or group not attached or signed to a record label ** Unsigned Music Awards, ceremony noting achievements of unsigned artists ** Unsigned band web, online community * Similarly, the c ...

Interstate designation. The entire length of A-3 follows AK-1 from the

Kenai Spur Highway The Kenai Spur Highway is a highway on the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska. The road begins at a junction with the Sterling Highway in Soldotna and provides access to the towns of Kenai and Nikiski, dead-ending at the entrance to the Captain Cook ...

in Soldotna to the turn in

downtown Anchorage Downtown Anchorage is a neighborhood in the U.S. city of Anchorage, Alaska. Considered the central business district of Anchorage, Downtown has many office buildings, cultural points of interest, shopping areas, as well as dining and nightlife ...

; there

A-1 A1, A-1, A01 or A.1. may refer to: Education * A1, the Basic Language Certificate of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages * Language A1, the former name for "Language A: literature", one of the IB Group 1 subjects * A1, a ...

begins, running to Tok along AK-1. (A-1 continues to the

Yukon Yukon (; ; formerly called Yukon Territory and also referred to as the Yukon) is the smallest and westernmost of Canada's three territories. It also is the second-least populated province or territory in Canada, with a population of 43,964 as ...

border along AK-2, the Alaska Highway.) Only a short portion of the Seward Highway south of downtown Anchorage and a longer portion of the Glenn Highway northeast to AK-3 are built to

standards; the proposed Highway to Highway Connection would link these through downtown.

Major intersections

Tok Cut-Off

The Tok Cut-Off is a highway in the

, running from Gakona (on the

, north of Glennallen), to Tok on the Alaska Highway which had been constructed from Montana through

Calgary, Alberta Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...

, through Whitehorse, Canada by Army engineers to move supplies and equipment, and to build airbases, to service the requirements of the Pacific theater, including transport of

Lend Lease Lend-Lease, formally the Lend-Lease Act and introduced as An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States (), was a policy under which the United States supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and other Allied nations with food, oil, ...

aircraft to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

after its invasion by Germany. The road was built in the 1940s through challenging terrain, largely by battalions of Black engineers, including the 97th Engineer Battalion.BUILDING THE ALASKA HIGHWAY Race and the Army During World War II
''

WGBH-TV WGBH-TV (channel 2), branded on-air as GBH or GBH 2 since 2020, is the primary PBS member television station in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is the flagship property of the WGBH Educational Foundation, which also owns Boston's se ...

''. Retrieved July 26, 2022. in order to facilitate transport of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

materiel in particular from ports such as Valdez and Anchorage to the interior. It was upgraded in the 1950s to better connect the

more directly with Tok. It was called a "cut-off" because it allowed motor traffic coming to and from Canada on the Alaska Highway, to drive directly northeast or southwest connect to or from Southcentral Alaska communities without driving all the way to or from the terminus of the Alaska highway in

Delta Junction Delta Junction ( uk, Делта-Джанкшен, Delta Dzhankshen) is a city in the Southeast Fairbanks Census Area, Alaska, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 958, up from 840 in 2000. The 2018 estimate was down to 931. T ...

, then traveling northwest or southeast by the Richardson Highway, reducing from the trip. The 2002 Denali earthquake caused significant damage to the Cut-Off, particularly between mileposts 75 and 83 where major cracks and embankment slumping left the roadway fundamentally destroyed.

References

External links

{{Attached KML, display=title,inline Copper River Census Area, Alaska Expressways in the United States Freeways in the United States Homer, Alaska Interstate Highways in Alaska Southeast Fairbanks Census Area, Alaska 01 Transportation in Anchorage, Alaska Transportation in Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska Transportation in Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska Transportation in Unorganized Borough, Alaska

Route description

Major intersections

Tok Cut-Off

See also

References

External links