Author: Amy B Wang / Source: Washington Post
At 8:29 a.m. last Friday, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake jolted Anchorage. There were no deaths or major injuries reported, but the quake caused rock slides, prompted thousands of aftershocks and devastated portions of several roads.
One, the northbound off-ramp of Minnesota Boulevard near Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, crumbled like a jigsaw puzzle.
Photos of the damage showed mangled piles of snow-dusted rubble disappearing into gaping holes in the earth.Less than a week later, however, Alaska Department of Transportation officials announced that the road had been repaired. Lest no one believe them, they posted drone video of the same stretch of road, showing freshly painted lines, neat rows of traffic cones and smooth asphalt ready for traffic.
Barely 100 hours after the earthquake, it was as if nothing had ever happened.
“The before and after footage speaks volumes to the level of work our crews have been putting in 24/7 this past week,” Alaska DOT wrote in the caption.
The collective response was one of awe mixed with state pride. (“Alaskans know how to rock, roll and repair!” one commenter wrote.) Followed by: How?! After all, everyone knows about that one roadway that has been under perpetual construction since at least the Clinton administration.
Alaska DOT spokeswoman Shannon McCarthy was quick to emphasize that this was emergency repair work and not a regular transportation project.
The latter requires permitting, survey operations, geotechnical work and a host of other prerequisites — and those finished roadways are designed to last, say, 20 years, she said.
“All of those things take a lot of time,” McCarthy told The Washington Post. “This is not that kind of project. This is a project to restore essential…
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