Sterling Highway

Alaska Route 1 marker
Sterling Highway
Map
Sterling Highway highlighted in red
Route information
Maintained by Alaska DOT&PF
Length132 mi[1] (212 km)
Existed1950–present
Major junctions
South end Alaska Marine Highway in Homer
North end AK-1 / AK-9 (Seward Highway) in Chugach National Forest
Location
CountryUnited States
StateAlaska
Highway system
Sterling Highway eastbound, entering the Kenai Mountains.
Sterling Highway at mile 170 (km 274), descending a long, steep hill (locally known as "Baycrest Hill") towards Homer.

The Sterling Highway is a 138-mile-long (222 km) state highway in the south-central region of the U.S. state of Alaska, leading from the Seward Highway at Tern Lake Junction, 90 miles (140 km) south of Anchorage, to Homer. [2]To assist in agricultural transport and also open areas to tourism, work began on the Sterling Highway in 1946 to connect the Kenai Peninsula agricultural area with Seward. This highway honors Hawley W. Sterling, lifetime ARC engineer who served as assistant chief engineer from 1932 until his death in 1948.

[2]The importance of the Sterling Highway was described in the Anchorage Daily Times article on its dedication in 1950:

It is the great achievement in the penetration of barriers that have kept Alaska’s development confined to shoreline establishments dependent upon marine transportation. The new road will give otherwise isolated peninsula farms access to markets for their farm products. In another year it will link the communities with Anchorage by way of the Turnagain Arm road, and all the cities of the continental United States by the way of the Alaska Highway. It opens up the great potential tourist and sportsmen developments by making the fishing, lakes and streams readily accessible by automobile. Alaska families will be able to live year round on their homesteads or fishing sites now that the Sterling Highway and its side roads enable their children to commute to school, give them access to medical aid and make it possible to move supplies as needed.

The Sterling Highway opened to traffic during the winter of 1950, when temperatures below freezing made it possible to travel over the unfinished surface. However, the highway required grading and gravel surfacing before being ready for summer traffic the following year.

Route description

The Sterling Highway is part of Alaska Route 1. It leads mainly west from Tern Lake to Soldotna, paralleling the Kenai River, at which point it turns south to follow the eastern shore of Cook Inlet. It is the only highway in the western and central Kenai Peninsula, and most of the population of the Kenai Peninsula Borough lives near it. The highway also gives access to many extremely popular fishing and recreation areas, including the Chugach National Forest, Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, and the Kenai, Funny, and Russian rivers. The southern end of the highway is at the tip of the Homer Spit, a landspit extending 4.5 miles (7.2 km) into Kachemak Bay. A ferry terminal here connects the road to the Alaska Marine Highway.[1]

Interstate Highway System

Interstate A-3 marker
Interstate A-3
LocationSoldotna to Anchorage
Length238.38 mi (383.64 km)
Existed1976–present

Sterling Highway is part of the unsigned part of the Interstate Highway System as Interstate A-3.[3][4]

Major intersections

Mileposts on the Sterling Highway begin with Mile 37 (60 km), continuing from the mileposts of the Seward Highway. (The 0 (zero) mile marker for the Seward Highway is in downtown Seward, at the intersection of 3rd and Railway Avenues. Thus, mileposts along the Sterling Highway reflect distance from Seward, which is not actually on the Sterling Highway.[citation needed]

The entire route is in Kenai Peninsula Borough.

Locationmi[1]kmDestinationsNotes
Homer00.0
AK-1 south (Lake Street) / Health Street
Continues south to Alaska Marine Highway terminal
Soldotna75121Kenai Spur Highway north – Kenai
Chugach National Forest132212

AK-1 north / AK-9 south (Seward Highway) – Anchorage, Seward
Tern Lake Junction; northern terminus of AK-9
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi

References

KML is from Wikidata
  1. ^ a b c "Sterling Highway" (Map). Google Maps. Retrieved January 11, 2020.
  2. ^ a b Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities. "Alaska Roads Historic Overview" (PDF). Historic Properties Management Plan.
  3. ^ Federal Highway Administration, National Highway System Viewer Archived 2007-08-27 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved August 2007.
  4. ^ Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, Dwight D. Eisenhower Interstate Routes Archived 2009-07-27 at the Wayback Machine, April 2006