Yukon highways dept. defends Alaska Highway chipseal

The Yukon Department ofHighways and Public Works is defending its decision to go with a cheaper surfacing alternative for a part of the Alaska Highway running through Whitehorse.

The department is spending millions of dollars resurfacing the highway at Marsh Lake, with asphalt but it put chip seal down on a busy section of the Alaska Highway that passes through Whitehorse, from the weigh scales to Range Road.

Alicia Debreceni with Highways and Public Workssays there are plans to upgrade that section of the Alaska Highway,possibly to four lanes. The chip seal, she says, is a temporary measure.

"We're still in the planning phase of determining what work will be done along the corridor so it just didn't make sense to put down expensive asphalt that we may have to be removing in five years when a long-term plan is in place," she said.

Debreceni says the chip seal treatment cost $500,000. Asphalt on the same section of road would have cost around $3 million.