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Show Alaska Highway to Be Ready For Army Use About December 1 'Alcan,' America's New 1,600 -Mile 'Burma Road' Through Virgin Wilderness, Constitutes an Engineering Feat of First Magnitude. Several months ahead of schedule, the Canadian-Alaskan Military highway, which has been under construction by the United States army engineers since last March, will be ready for army use early this winter, it was announced by the war department recently. The engineers expect to finish the' pioneer road about December 1, 1942. Plans are now being made for winter traffic over the complete route of approximately 1,600 miles between that date and April 1, 1943, the period during which the highway high-way and the rivers of the region it traverses will be frozen. During the months of April and May it is believed the road will be unsuitable for heavy traffic owing to thaws and excessive moisture following the break-up of winter. Although originally contemplated as a rough "pioneer" road, to be $ Maj. Gen. Eugene Reybold, chief of engineers. The work is being performed by engineer officers and enlisted personnel of the United States army. Northwest Service Command. On September 10, 1942, the war department announced the establishment estab-lishment of the Northwest Service command, in charge of army highway high-way and railroad building activities, and supply maintenance services in western Canada and Alaska, with headquarters at Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada. Brig. Gen. ;"$xrx- y' Jilt' J 1 The men behind the wheel at the Whitehose sector, Alcan highway. Left to right, Major Frank A. Petit, (C. E.) topographic officer; Brig. Gen. W. H. Hoge, (C. E.) commanding officer, and Major Eugene J. Stann, (C. E.) executive officer. completed in one year, the Alcan highway as it is now being constructed con-structed by the corps of engineers is a well-graded, well-drained truck road for practically its entire length and will afford two-way traffic over many long stretches. . The highway begins at Dawson Manpower gets busy as these U. S. army engineers build bridges that connect up with the Alcan highway. Creek, British Columbia, just north of Edmonton, pursues a northwesterly northwest-erly course to Whitehorse, in Yukon Yu-kon Territory, then swings west across the Alaskan boundary and thence to Fairbanks. A Military Supply Route. The Alcan highway will function as an important military supply route. Connecting with the railway and highway systems of the United States and southern Canada at Dawson Daw-son Creek, its southern terminus, the pioneer route provides not only an uninterrupted motor highway to Alaska, but serves as a feeder road to several important military airfields air-fields in Canada that have hitherto had to depend upon air transport for all their supplies. The latter may now be trucked in overland. The construction of the pioneer road is a militarized project, authorized au-thorized by joint agreement between Canada and the United States and carried out under the direction of James A. O'Connor, formerly in charge of construction on the southern south-ern sector of the road, has been assigned to head the new service command, with Col. Kenneth B. Bush, adjutant general's department, depart-ment, as chief of staff. Complete arrangements have been made by the army for winter maintenance of the road. These plans include the construction of rest camps for the operators of truck convoys, barracks for engineer engi-neer maintenance troops and adequate ade-quate weather observation and telephone tele-phone installations to serve the entire en-tire length of the highway. All necessary nec-essary facilities, equipment and supplies to service the road and keep traffic moving are being provided. pro-vided. The construction of the pioneer route through the virgin wilderness in such a short space of time constitutes con-stitutes an engineering feat by the army of first magnitude. It was not accomplished without physical hardship and privation on the part of the officers and men, but no handicaps of weather or terrain were sufficient to dampen the enthusiasm en-thusiasm of the troops or retard progress. Aside from the endurance and efficiency of the force, among whom a large detachment of Negro troops acquitted themselves with special distinction, three main factors fac-tors contributed to the speed with which construction has been carried on. . . . i I hp i - i i f & $M ' " - A; :hjj"'YAt - Heavy construction equipment proves its weight in gold when called upon to break through virgin territory. |