The Johansen Expressway (formally, the Woodrow Johansen Expressway) is a expressway in
Fairbanks, Alaska
Fairbanks is a home rule city and the borough seat of the Fairbanks North Star Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. Fairbanks is the largest city in the Interior region of Alaska and the second largest in the state. The 2020 Census put the po ...
. The Johansen Expressway serves as a northern bypass to the city, and is notable for being the only highway in Alaska to have exit numbers.
History
Named the
Geist
''Geist'' () is a German noun with a significant degree of importance in German philosophy. Its semantic field corresponds to English ghost, spirit, mind, intellect. Some English translators resort to using "spirit/mind" or "spirit (mind)" to he ...
Road Extension for most of its planning period, the highway was named in 1988 in honor of Hendryx Woodrow "Woody" Johansen (1913–1991).
Johansen was a professor of
civil engineering
Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewa ...
at the
University of Alaska Fairbanks
The University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF or Alaska) is a public land-grant research university in College, Alaska, a suburb of Fairbanks. It is the flagship campus of the University of Alaska system. UAF was established in 1917 and opened for ...
, and an employee of the
Alaska Road Commission
The Board of Road Commissioners for Alaska, more commonly known as the Alaska Road Commission or ARC, was created in 1905 as a board of the U.S. War Department. It was responsible for the construction and improvement of many important Alaska ...
and the
Alaska Department of Highways.
As northern district engineer for the Department of Highways, he envisioned and designed the system of expressways which was built in the Fairbanks area between the 1970s and 1990s.
Route description
The Johansen Expressway is a four- to six-lane expressway in Fairbanks. Most of the expressway is built with four lanes of traffic and the capability to upgrade to six lanes. The expressway begins as a continuation of Geist Road at an intersection with University Avenue near the
University of Alaska Fairbanks
The University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF or Alaska) is a public land-grant research university in College, Alaska, a suburb of Fairbanks. It is the flagship campus of the University of Alaska system. UAF was established in 1917 and opened for ...
campus. From this point it continues east as a four-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
The Steese Highway (known as the Steese Expressway within Fairbanks) is a highway in the Interior region of the U.S. state of Alaska that extends from Fairbanks to Circle, a town on the Yukon River about 50 miles (80 km) south of the Arc ...
, an old gold-rush route that leads to the town of
Circle
A circle is a shape consisting of all points in a plane that are at a given distance from a given point, the centre. Equivalently, it is the curve traced out by a point that moves in a plane so that its distance from a given point is const ...
to the north.
Exit list
See also
*
*
References
{{Reflist
Transportation in Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska
State highways in Alaska
Expressways in the United States