cabins and station attendants might operate lunch counters
as is already done in both Canada and the United States.
Some increase in gasoline and oil prices might be required
to encourage the supplying of this service to motorists.
Station operators could also be allowed the use of available
construction buildings in the interest of tourist welfare,
with permission to make reasonable alterations.

The suggestion with Tespect to possible transient
accommodation in maintenance camps proposes the designa-
tion of certain selected camps as regular stopping places for
transient motorists. Meals, as served to maintenance
crews, sleeping accommodation, and _ services would be
supplied by the maintenance camp staff. Emergency motor
repairs might, under this plan, be handled by maintenance
camp mechanics. All revenue would revert to the authority
supplying maintenance funds. Such an arrangement would
seem to be best adapted to conditions where travel over
the highway continues to be controlled by some system
of permits.

A good deal of study should be given to the subject of
accommodations and services before plans to open the
highway to unrestricted travel are finally settled. At
this stage, discussions of ultimate provision for tourist
travel must be speculative since, for the immediate future,
the Department of National Defence is to undertake the
maintenance and control of the highway as a military road.
Ultimately, if the road is opened to unrestricted use, we
must be prepared to expect tourist travel, of which a good
proportion will be from the United States.

It is fitting, and in harmony with the surroundings,
that accommodation provided be of the frontier type; no
frills are called for or likely to be desired, but the tourist
must be fed and comfortably housed, his car serviced, and
the safety of his party assured throughout the length of his
journey, even though he may be regarding himself as an
explorer. For the credit of the Dominion and in the interest
of the future of the highway, whatever is done by way of
providing accommodation and services must be adequate.

It might be interesting at this point to include recent
information that has a bearing on tourist travel. During
July and August, 1946, the through traffic to Alaska
averaged about 20 vehicles per day and with very limited
facilities along the highway catering to the travelling
public, these cars got through without too much difficulty.
There is now accommodation along the road for some 50
people a day (providing they keep travelling), and as the
majority making the trip will probably have their own
camping equipment, it would appear safe enough to allow
at least 100 cars per day over the highway. Most of the
tourist camps already located are in a position, and anxious,
to enlarge their accommodations shouid trafic warrant.
The present road conditions from Edmonton to Dawson
Creek would probably restrict any increased traffic flow
over the Alaska Highway until the month of June.

The British Columbia Government intend building
tourist camps along the section of the highway in British

[122 }

Columbia for tourists travelling with their own camping
equipment, and the Lands, Parks and Forests Branch
of the Department of Mines and Resources intend erecting

Some seven camps of this type of accommodation along the
highway in Yukon Territory in 1947.

MAINTENANCE COSTS

Maintenance costs on this highway will fall into two
categories:

1. Maintenance of the gravel surface under traffic.

2. Repair and reconstruction of sections destroyed or

damaged by flood, spring break-up, frost, and settle-
ment.

Maintenance of the road surface under trafic begins
immediately after spring repair work has been completed
on any section and involves grading of the road sections,
resurfacing, and smoothing minor depressions or ridges.
Such work can be well organized and can be carried on by

maintenance crews occupying perhaps two camps at different
times of the season.

Repair and reconstruction, including emergency work,
will probably be costly in the early years of Operation.
Although the road has been in operation for three full years,
extreme run-off conditions have not yet been experienced
and the full impact of these on a road carrying public trafhic
can be very serious. During the flood season maintenance
authorities will have to control traffic so that there will
not be a concentration of cars at any one point because

of the interruption of traffic due to washouts or other road
damage.

One of the more difficult factors that will be encountered
in the maintenance of the highway is that due to the very
low temperatures with, in some sections, a light or moderate
snowfall. The consequent high frost penetration increases
maintenance work in the spring, particularly where the
ground water-level is near the surface and drainage is
inadequate. Much of the road is also in the “perma-frost””
area and such sections require special attention and study
over several seasons to decide the best form of treatment.
Where the road is in fill the “perma-frost” line eventually
rises in the fill to points above the adjacent natural ground-
level. An impervious barrier to cross drainage consisting
of frozen fill material results and more drainage structures
under fills are required. Much of the early washing out
of bridges was because these were temporary structures.
They are now, in good part, replaced by well-built truss
spans with concrete piers and abutments, and as a result
the problem of maintenance should be considerably easier.
Most of the maintenance trouble will be in the approach
fills to the larger spans. In order to reduce the length of
bridge spans, stream channels have been restricted by high
gravel fills. These have a tendency to erosion when more
than normal floods occur. The high approach fills to the
MacDonald and Racing Rivers bridges are examples.