Arterial roads in Whitehorse, Yukon - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

2nd Avenue

2nd Avenue is the main arterial, north-south route that roughly parallels the Yukon River

Yukon River

The Yukon River is a major watercourse of northwestern North America. The source of the river is located in British Columbia, Canada. The next portion lies in, and gives its name to Yukon Territory. The lower half of the river lies in the U.S. state of Alaska. The river is long and empties into...

in Whitehorse, Yukon

Whitehorse, Yukon

Whitehorse is Yukon's capital and largest city . It was incorporated in 1950 and is located at kilometre 1476 on the Alaska Highway in southern Yukon. Whitehorse's downtown and Riverdale areas occupy both shores of the Yukon River, which originates in British Columbia and meets the Bering Sea in...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. The downtown core of Whitehorse

Downtown Whitehorse, Yukon

Downtown Whitehorse is a neighbourhood in Whitehorse, Yukon. It is the commercial centre of the city. The Yukon Legislative Building is located in the neighbourhood....

is developed partially along the route. 2nd Avenue is numbered as such as the second roadway from the Yukon River

Yukon River

(1st Avenue is a much shorter local street closer to the edge of the river). Many important public and commercial buildings in Whitehorse, Yukon

Whitehorse, Yukon

are located along the street.

2nd Avenue's north section, officially the "2nd Avenue Extension" past Black Street, continues along the same alignment to approximately four blocks north of Ogilvie, then turns west-southwest, passes the beginning of Quartz Road and ends at 4th Avenue, just south of where 4th Avenue becomes Two Mile Hill Road, which eventually leads to Yukon Highway 1

Alaska Highway

The Alaska Highway was constructed during World War II for the purpose of connecting the contiguous U.S. to Alaska through Canada. It begins at the junction with several Canadian highways in Dawson Creek, British Columbia and runs to Delta Junction, Alaska, via Whitehorse, Yukon...

(Alaska Highway) and Yukon Highway 2

Klondike Highway

The Klondike Highway links the Alaskan coastal town of Skagway to Yukon's Dawson City and its route somewhat parallels that used by prospectors in the 1898 Klondike Gold Rush....

(Klondike Highway).

The south end of the road splits into two: Robert Service Way, which leads to Highway 1 as well, and Lewes Boulevard, which leads to the large subdivision of Riverdale.

Roads in downtown Whitehorse are named mostly after pioneers and well-known early Yukoners.

Landmarks along the route

Whitehorse City Hall
Yukon Territorial Government Building
Yukon Visitor Information Center

4th Avenue

4th Avenue is an important secondary arterial, north-south route that roughly parallels the Yukon River

Yukon River

in Whitehorse, Yukon

Whitehorse, Yukon

, Canada

Canada

. The downtown core of Whitehorse is developed partially along the route. 4th Avenue is numbered as such as the fourth roadway from the Yukon River

Yukon River

. Many businesses and service establishments in Whitehorse, Yukon

Whitehorse, Yukon

are located along the street.

4th Avenue's north end, just past the intersection with 2nd Avenue, connects to Two Mile Hill Road, as one continuous route to meet the Alaska Highway

Alaska Highway

.

The south end of the road, passing through a mostly residential area, meets Robert Service Way.

Two Mile Hill Road

Two Mile Hill Road is a main route that has long been the primary access (and until 1958, the only access) to the downtown area of Whitehorse. The original road wound hazardously down the escarpment, and was named for a commercial sign that indicated the distance to a specific business. In the early 1960s, a straight, steep-incline road, with two uphill lanes, was built from the Alaska Highway to the foot of the hill where it met Industrial Road, before hugging the escarpment again until it met 4th Avenue; the road met the Alaska Highway at a large traffic circle until the early 1970s, then at a T-intersection. The lower section of the road hugged the escarpment as the flat land was held by the White Pass & Yukon Route rail line. In 1993-94, the roadway was extensively rebuilt and relocated, as well as widened from two lanes to four, divided; the lower portion was relocated as the WP&YR intended to sell the adjacent land for development. The Alaska Highway intersection was moved to meet Hamilton Road, making a four-way intersection, and traffic signals were installed.

Though a natural extension of 4th Avenue, the road retains its own identity and civic building numbering. The lower section of the road in particular is next to a large tract of land, long owned by White Pass, that was boreal forest until 1997, and has now been cleared, filled to raise it, and developed for "big box" stores such as Wal-Mart.

Roads in the Marwell Industrial area along Industrial Road are named after minerals.

Robert Service Way

Robert Service Way is a main route that has long been the secondary access to the downtown area of Whitehorse. The road was hastily graded in 1958 during a major forest fire threatening the city, as a secondary evacuation route - the White Pass railway

White Pass and Yukon Route

The White Pass and Yukon Route is a Canadian and U.S. Class II narrow gauge railroad linking the port of Skagway, Alaska, with Whitehorse, the capital of Yukon. An isolated system, it has no direct connection to any other railroad. Equipment, freight and passengers are ferried by ship through the...

would also have served as an evacuation route. Motorists began using the roadway, however, necessitating upgrades and eventual paving, but the road grade was inferior. The route was completely rebuilt during 1997 and widened to a total of four lane capability, but only two lanes were built for the majority of the route.

The name Robert Service Way was not applied until approximately 1997; until then, it was known as the South Access Road.

Landmarks along the route

Robert Service Campground
Yukon Energy Corporation
Yukon Energy Corporation
Yukon Energy Corporation is a Canadian Crown corporation in the Yukon.YEC is a subsidiary of Yukon Development Corporation and was established in 1987 to take over the Yukon assets of the Northern Canada Power Commission. YEC generates virtually all of the Yukon's electricity supply, and...

Schwatka Dam
S.S. Klondike National Historic Site

Mountainview Drive

Mountainview Drive is a main route through the northeast parts of Whitehorse, serving as part of a series of connecting roads. The route begins at 2nd Avenue with Quartz Road, following this road nearly its entire length, then the route follows the entire length of Copper Road. Where Copper Road originally ended, Mountainview Drive itself begins. The road ends at the intersection where Hickory Street and 12th Avenue meet - a section of Hickory between 11th Avenue and 12th Avenue was regraded to serve as part of Mountainview.

The roadway was known as the Porter Creek Alternate Access, while a name was considered. One city councillor suggested naming it Lang Road after a municipal pioneer; another joked at renaming Porter Creek to "Tipperary" since it would be a "Lang Way to Tipperary". The name Mountainview Drive was shortly after chosen, and in fact, the road does offer stunning vistas of the mountains around the city.

The actual Mountainview Drive was constructed from 1980 to 1983, when it was opened to traffic between the end of Copper Road and the Hickory/12th intersection, at the southeast corner of a residential area. Motorists proceeding north along Hickory join with Clyde Wann Road, and west along 12th Avenue meet Centennial Street, which connects with the Alaska Highway.

Mountainview Drive has no development along its length, with the adjacent lands designated as open space in the municipal zoning bylaw. The road does, however pass adjacent to a small number of properties that are accessed from other streets.

Range Road

Range Road is a main route through the northeast parts of Whitehorse. The road originally started at Two Mile Hill Road and ended in the Porter Creek Lower Bench area, as it split into access roads to various communications stations, including air navigation equipment, radio broadcast towers and sewage treatment plants. By 1971, it had been linked to the east end of Clyde Wann Road, but, north of Northland Trailer Park, it was a low-quality road, with a sub-standard grade and wild curves; it was upgraded and hard-surfaced in 1996. It was viewed in the late 1970s as an alternative to the Alaska Highway to reach Porter Creek from downtown, but viewed as inferior, costly to upgrade, and did not connect at Porter Creek in such a way as to attract much traffic flow. Mountainview Drive was constructed instead.

In 1993, the road was extended southward as a frontage road between the Alaska Highway and some businesses just south of Two Mile Hill, with a view to eventually extending it as far as the city airport.

The road provides access to mobile home parks, one of two city golf courses, as well as radio facilities and sewage treatment lagoons.

Roads in the Takhini Subdivision adjacent to Range Road are named after battlefields of the Second World War; the subdivision was, until 1968, the Canadian Army residential area, and until the 1990s, many homes were still owned by Public Works Canada.

With the development of the Porter Creek Lower Bench area in 2010-2011 as the new Whistle Bend subdivision, the northernmost portion of Range Road will become Whistle Bend Way, connected to Mountainview Drive just south of its 12th Avenue terminus; Range Road will be aligned to adjoin Whistle Bend Way at a 3-way intersection.

Hamilton Boulevard

Hamilton Boulevard is a main route through the west part of Whitehorse. It was developed in the late 1970s to open up a large new residential area in anticipation of a boom brought by construction of a natural gas pipeline, but the boom never materialized. The road was opened in portions, the first 840 m as far as Sumanik Drive to access a ski chalet, then up to 2.5 km as far as McIntyre Road for the new Kwanlin Dun subdivision, then up to 3.65 km as far as Falcon Drive for the Granger, Arkell and Logan subdivisions, and finally a further 300 metre extension for the Copper Ridge subdivision.

As of 2010, Hamilton Boulevard extends south, turns at a traffic circle and continues east to join the Alaska Highway opposite Robert Service Way. Construction began in 2008; the extension provides improved access to Lobird Trailer Court from the west side of the traffic circle.

The right-of-way and design can accommodate a divided four-lane road, but the road was originally built as a two-lane road. Circa 2005, some 2.5 km of the road's northern section was widened to two lanes southbound and a bicycle lane added for northbound traffic.

Roads in MacIntyre and Granger subdivisions are named after pioneer Yukoners, although the MacIntyre subdivision was developed in the late 1980s as the new location of the Kwanlin Dun First Nation community. Roads in Logan and Arkell subdivisions are named after birds; roads in Copper Ridge are named after gemstones.

Landmarks along the route

Jeux du Canada Games Centre, central site of the 2007 Canada Winter Games
winter sports facility that started as the Whitehorse Ski Chalet (cross-country skiing
Cross-country skiing
Cross-country skiing is a winter sport in which participants propel themselves across snow-covered terrain using skis and poles...

), further developed with a curling
Curling
Curling is a sport in which players slide stones across a sheet of ice towards a target area. It is related to bowls, boule and shuffleboard. Two teams, each of four players, take turns sliding heavy, polished granite stones, also called "rocks", across the ice curling sheet towards the house, a...

rink that has hosted national competitions such as the Air Canada Silver Broom

The Lobird Trailer Park includes a small, metal-clad apartment building. The building was actually constructed in the 1950s to take advantage of the location to carry out electronic eavesdropping on communications in the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

. This activity ended in the late 1960s, and the building today is known as the Radar Apartments, though the term "radar" is loosely applied.

Lewes Boulevard

Lewes Boulevard is a main route through the east river bank part of Whitehorse. It starts at the Robert Campbell Bridge (which connects it to 2nd Avenue), passes through an institutional area of two schools and the former Yukon College site, then passes through a residential area where it ends. At two points, it connects with Alsek Road, which circles most of the outer perimeter of the Riverdale subdivision. Lewes also connects with Nisutlin Road, which reaches the Schwatka Dam, and in turn connects with the Chadburn Lake Road to recreational areas.

Lewes Boulevard is, like all streets in Riverdale, named after a river in the Yukon, however, the river after which it is named, flowing from Marsh Lake to where it meets the Pelly River, is now part of the Yukon River.

Centennial Street

Centennial Street is a frontage road along the Alaska Highway through the Porter Creek subdivision; not including a 90 metre section of MacDonald Road that connects it back to the Alaska Highway at the north end, it is 2.34 kilometres long.

The road is made up of two segments of the old alignment of the Alaska Highway, connected by a newer roadway. Besides several older homes, it also has some of the few businesses that exist in the Porter Creek area. The street name probably refers to Canada's centennial year of 1967, shortly before which the roadway reverted to local road status from a part of the Alaska Highway.

Roads in Porter Creek are named after trees. Roads in nearby Kulan Industrial Subdivision and the nearby Crestview subdivision are named after lakes.

Clyde Wann Road

Wann Road, sometimes known by its full name Clyde Wann Road, is a main route through the northeast parts of Whitehorse, serving as the main arterial road in the northern part of Porter Creek. It begins at the Alaska Highway and ends at Hickory Street, where it connects to the north end of Range Road. The road is mostly adjacent to residential areas.

The road is named after a pioneer Yukoner.

12th Avenue

12th Avenue is a main route through the northeast parts of Whitehorse, serving as the main arterial road in the southern part of Porter Creek. It begins at Centennial Street, close to access to the Alaska Highway, and ends at Hickory Street, where it connects to the north end of Mountainview Drive. The entire street is residential.

Robert Campbell Bridge

The Robert Campbell Bridge, Whitehorse's only bridge over the Yukon River, links most of Whitehorse with the Riverdale subdivision and the city hospital. It was first constructed in the early 1950s, and damaged in the spring of 1973 when its abutments were eroded by the river. The bridge was closed for a long period of time, and traffic was rerouted over the Schwatka Dam, using one-way traffic. A Bailey bridge was finally installed and a new bridge was opened late in 1975. It is a two-lane bridge, and is vulnerable to blockage; an incident in 2007 during rush hour backed traffic up most of the length of 2nd Avenue. Discussions include hanging the sidewalks out over the side and converting their present space to allow a third lane with reversible flow.
Other subdivisions, accessed by way of the Alaska Highway or Klondike Highway:

Hidden Valley and MacPherson - streets named after berries, and others after pioneer residents
Hillcrest - uncertain naming scheme
Pineridge - streets named after mountains
Wolf Creek, Mount Sima Industrial - streets named after pioneers
MacRae - streets named after stops and stations on the White Pass and Yukon Route railway
Mary Lake - streets named after flowers found in the Yukon
Cowley Creek - streets named after fish species

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