Johansen Expressway

The Johansen Expressway (formally, the Woodrow Johansen Expressway) is an approximately 4.5-mile long expressway in Fairbanks, Alaska. The Johansen Expresway serves as a northern bypass to the city, and is notable for being the only highway in Alaska to have exit numbers. It was named in 1988 in honor of Woodrow (Woody) Johansen (1913–1991), ^[1] a professor of civil engineering at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and employee of the Alaska Road Commission, and the Alaska Department of Highways.^[2] As northern district engineer for the Department of Highways, he envisioned and designed the highway system around Fairbanks which was built between the 1970s and 1990s.

Route description

The Johansen Expressway is a 4-to-6 lane expressway in Fairbanks Alaska. Most of the expressway is built with 4 lanes of traffic and the capability to upgrade to 6 lanes. The expressway begins as a continuation of Geist Road at an intersection with University Avenue near the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus. From this point it continues east as a 4-lane expressway, passing through an interchange with Peger Road, providing access to commercial districts along Airport Way to the south. Johansen Expressway continues east, passing through an intersection with Danby Street, a major connection to residential areas to the north, and through a major interchange with College Road, providing a connection with Downtown Fairbanks and other outlying commercial and residential districts. After passing through two intersections leading to commercial developments, the Johansen Expressway ends at the Steese Highway, an old gold-rush route that leads to the town of Circle to the north.

Exit list

The entirety of the route is in the Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska. The corporate limits of the City of Fairbanks cross the Johansen Expressway at a point slightly west of Peger Road.

References