About eight miles (13 km) of the Seward Highway leading into Anchorage is built to freeway standards.

The highest traffic count as recorded by Alaska DOT&PF was 58,799 vehicles daily at the Dowling Road overpass in Anchorage.

The highway continues past the Seward Airport and Exit Glacier road, before entering the unincorporated community of Bear Creek.

[8] Just after entering Bear Creek, a series of tracks belonging to the Alaska Railroad comes alongside the roadway.

The highway enters the Chugach National Forest while it is still part of the Bear Creek community, so it gives the appearance of still being inside that census-designated place.

For the next five or so miles (8 km), the route runs on a thin strip of land between the mountains and Kenai Lake.

After approximately 10 miles (16 km), the highway passes Summit Lake, and provides access to another large campground.

The highway continues through the Chugach National Forest for approximately 8 miles (13 km), passing the Turnagain Arm to the west, and the Kenai Mountains to the east.

It then exits the Chugach National Forest, having spent approximately 72 miles (116 km) inside its boundaries.

The road continues through forest for about 10 miles (16 km) more, before passing the small skiing village of Bird.

The Seward Highway passes along the coast of Cook Inlet for about 12 miles (19 km), with the Kenai Mountains running along the northern side.

The freeway continues past several neighborhoods, a plant nursery, and Rabbit Creek Elementary School.

The final designation was added on June 15, 2000, when the Seward Highway was named an All-American Road as part of the National Scenic Byway program by the United States Secretary of Transportation.

[3] In July 2016, Alaska DOT&PF officials posted updated speed limits on a five-mile (8.0 km) section of the Seward Highway south of Anchorage between Hope Junction to the top of Turnagain Pass.

The project is designed to enhance safety and improve congestion by enforcing passing lane usage.

[15] In 2017, Alaska DOT&PF announced a four-year Milepost 75–90 Rehabilitation Project,[16][17] scheduled to begin in 2018, to make major safety improvements to a busy crash-prone section of the Seward Highway from Girdwood to beyond the Portage curve toward Turnagain Pass ending at Ingram Creek.

In July 2015 a tour bus crash at milepost 79 killed one man and critically injured several others, causing a 10-hour traffic jam.

The road proceeds north into Midtown, traveling through the neighborhood to the highway's northern terminus, an intersection with 33rd Avenue near the Moose's Tooth Pub and Pizzeria.

[13] Beginning in 1976, the state of Alaska designated three projects to reroute a large portion of the Seward Highway.