First, a little history lesson. At the outbreak of World War II there was no overland access to Alaska from the lower 48 or Canada. Fearing a Japanese invasion of Alaska (which actually did occur in June, 1942), in March 1942 the US Army undertook a crash program to build a road to supply military bases in Alaska. The road stretches 1,422 miles from Dawson Creek, BC to Delta Junction, AK, where it connects to the Richardson Highway, which runs from Valdez to Fairbanks. The project was huge, crossing rugged mountains, heavily wooded forests and swampy tundra, all under some pretty miserable weather conditions, but it was completed in eight months at a cost of $115 million, or $81,000 per mile. For comparison, the Boston Central Artery project (“the Big Dig”) cost about $1.8 billion per
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