Forest Highway

Forest Highways or Forest Routes are a category of roads within United States National Forests. They are built to connect the national forests to the existing state highway systems, and to provide improved access to recreational and logging areas.

Description

The federal statues define the term Forest Highway as "a forest road under the jurisdiction of, and maintained by, a public authority and open to public travel."

Forest highways are designated by the United States Forest Service and funded by the federal government, but are generally owned and maintained by the states or counties in which they are located. The forest highway system comprises approximately 29,000 miles (47,000 km) of roads. Forest highways are usually marked with markers of the style shown at right. To qualify for inclusion in the system, a roadway must "be wholly or partially within, or adjacent to, and serving the National Forest System" among other criteria.

History

In the 1920s, forest highway was a class of federal aid, and could be used outside forests, as long as the projects improved access to the forests.

Portage Glacier Highway

The Portage Glacier Highway, or Portage Glacier Road, is a highway located in the U.S. state of Alaska. The highway is made up of a series of roads, bridges, and tunnels that connect the Portage Glacier area of the Chugach National Forest and the city of Whittier to the Seward Highway. Most of the highway travels through mainly rural areas just north of the Kenai Peninsula, with the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel passing under Maynard Mountain, part of the Chugach Mountain Range. Parts of the route were first constructed in the early 1900s, and the entire highway was completed on June 7, 2000, as part of the Whittier Access Project. As of 2012, the highway has not been extended or rerouted. The main portion of the highway traveling from the western terminus to the Begich, Boggs visitors center is designated as National Forest Highway 35 by the U.S. Forest Service.

Route description

The portion of the Portage Glacier Highway traveling from the Seward Highway to the Begich, Boggs Visitor Center is designated as part of Forest Highway 35, a Federal Forest Highway (FFH). Forest Highways are funded and administered by the US Forest Service and the Federal Highway Administration; the system was created by the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1921. FFH-35 is one of the 33 Forest Highways that are currently designated in Alaska.

Whitefish Bay National Forest Scenic Byway

The Whitefish Bay National Forest Scenic Byway is a National Forest Scenic Byway that runs along Whitefish Bay in the Hiawatha National Forest in the U.S. state of Michigan. The byway mostly follows Federal Forest Highway 42 (FFH 42) through Chippewa County in the Upper Peninsula. As a forest highway, it is maintained jointly by the Chippewa County Road Commission (CCRC) and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS). The route of the byway first existed as an earth road by the 1930s; it was improved into a gravel road in the 1940s and paved between the 1950s and the 1980s. The byway designation was created in 1989.

Route description