Alaska highway workers have moved the Dalton Highway to protect it from a giant mass of frozen debris oozing down a hillside.
The approximately mile-long frozen debris lobe, consisting of dirt, ice and trees, is informally called “the blob.” It threatened to bulldoze away a section of road more than 200 miles north of Fairbanks in three, maybe four years, transportation officials said.
So the state has moved the road farther downhill, buying itself 20 or so years before the blob can menace it again, at a cost of about $2 million, said Jeff Currey, a materials engineer with the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities.
