Transportation in Alaska
Many interior communities are connected by seasonal ATV trails when the weather is cold enough to freeze otherwise impassable grounds.
Many of the northern highways have tighter weight restrictions during spring, where axle load limits can be reduced by as much as 20% due to seasonally soft ground.
One unique feature of the road system is the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel, which links the Seward Highway south of Anchorage with the relatively isolated community of Whittier.
The State and local boroughs maintain about 4,700 miles (7,600 km) of winter trails throughout the northern and western regions.
The trails often follow paths laid out by indigenous people, and the network stretches along the coast from Norton Sound to the Beaufort Sea.
In 2004, the State Department of Transportation worked with local partners to provide wayfinding in the form of tripods made of 8-foot (2.4 m) tall reflective stakes, able to be placed each season when the ground freezes enough to allow passage.
During the Gold Rush era from the 1890s to the 1920s, it connected a string of mines, trading posts, and settlements, for which it was declared a National Historic Trail in 1978.
[5][1][2] The Alaska Railroad runs from Seward through Anchorage, Denali, and Fairbanks to North Pole, with spurs to Whittier and Palmer (locally known as "The Railbelt").
The railroad plays a vital part in moving Alaska's natural resources, such as coal and gravel, to ports in Anchorage, Whittier, and Seward.
[6] The railway found work hauling Canadian copper, silver, and lead to tidewater in Skagway.
A combination of low ore prices and competition with the Haines Highway, which saw major improvements in 1976, caused the White Pass and Yukon Railroad to close on October 7, 1982.
[9] In 1988 the railroad was reopened as a passenger-only line catering to tourists, traveling to Lake Bennet and back, using vintage parlor cars.
[10] Nearly all larger cities and boroughs across the state operate local bus systems, including Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau, Sitka, Ketchikan and Bethel.
The system also operates a ferry service from Bellingham, Washington and Prince Rupert, British Columbia in Canada up the Inside Passage to Skagway.
The bulk of remaining commercial flight offerings come from small regional commuter airlines like Ravn Alaska, PenAir, and Frontier Flying Service.
The world's busiest seaplane base is Lake Hood, located next to Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, where flights bound for remote villages without an airstrip carry passengers, cargo, and an abundance of items from stores and warehouse clubs.
"[17] Because of the high quantity of mail shipped to rural Alaska from Anchorage and Fairbanks, the program intended to allow certain volume shippers to bypass postal facilities entirely, reducing cost and congestion.
[18] The bypass mail system pays at an "intra-Alaska mainline service rate," which is an average cost of operations from a pool of carriers.
Some carriers receive as much as 60% of their revenue from Bypass Mail contracts, allowing them to provide more frequent passenger service as well.
