During the course of World War II, the United States military invested nearly $2 billion in Alaska. After the war ended, the highway remained a primary conduit to Alaska's interior, which boosted the territory's long quest to become a state. In the early 1950s Utah Construction joined J. H. Pomeroy & Company, Inc., and Bechtel Corporation in building military installations at a cost of $27 million. Ironically, by 1959 when Congress named Alaska the 49th state, the military installations were deemed critical in defending against the Soviet Union, for wartime alliances had disintegrated and the Cold War ensued.