Sterling Highway

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Sterling Highway
Sterling Highway highlighted in red
Route information
Maintained by Alaska DOT&PF
Length	132 mi[1] (212 km)
Existed	1950–present
Major junctions
South end	Alaska Marine Highway in Homer
North end	AK-1 / AK-9 (Seward Highway) in Chugach National Forest
Location
Country	United States
State	Alaska
Highway system
Alaska Routes Interstate Scenic Byways

The Sterling Highway is a 138-mile-long (222 km) state highway in the south-central region of the U.S. state of Alaska, leading from the Seward Highway at Tern Lake Junction, 90 miles (140 km) south of Anchorage, to Homer.

Construction of the highway began in 1947 and was completed in 1950. The Sterling Highway is part of Alaska Route 1. It leads mainly west from Tern Lake to Soldotna, paralleling the Kenai River, at which point it turns south to follow the eastern shore of Cook Inlet. It is the only highway in the western and central Kenai Peninsula, and most of the population of the Kenai Peninsula Borough lives near it. The highway also gives access to many extremely popular fishing and recreation areas, including the Chugach National Forest, Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, and the Kenai, Funny, and Russian rivers. The southern end of the highway is at the tip of the Homer Spit, a landspit extending 4.5 miles (7.2 km) into Kachemak Bay. A ferry terminal here connects the road to the Alaska Marine Highway.^[1]

Interstate A-3
Location	Soldotna to Anchorage
Length	238.38 mi (383.64 km)
Existed	1976–present

Sterling Highway is part of the unsigned part of the Interstate Highway System as Interstate A-3.^[2][3]

Mileposts on the Sterling Highway begin with Mile 37 (60 km), continuing from the mileposts of the Seward Highway. (The 0 (zero) mile marker for the Seward Highway is in downtown Seward, at the intersection of 3rd and Railway Avenues. Thus, mileposts along the Sterling Highway reflect distance from Seward, which is not actually on the Sterling Highway.^{[citation needed]}

The entire route is in Kenai Peninsula Borough.

Location	mi[1]	km	Destinations	Notes
Homer	0	0.0	AK-1 south (Lake Street) / Health Street	Continues south to Alaska Marine Highway terminal
Soldotna	75	121	Kenai Spur Highway north – Kenai
Chugach National Forest	132	212	AK-1 north / AK-9 south (Seward Highway) – Anchorage, Seward	Tern Lake Junction; northern terminus of AK-9
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi