by Ian Elliot
Northern News Services

NNSL (Dec 31/97) - The Fort Providence ferry was expected to reopen to cars and grocery trucks to replenish Yellowknife's depleted stores last night.

Crews using a backhoe over the side of the ferry spent more than a day breaking up an ice jam that shut down Yellowknife's only land link to the outside world on the weekend.

By early Tuesday afternoon, workers had extended a channel of open water almost to the Yellowknife side of the river, and the ferry was expected to be back in service by midnight.

Because the channel cannot be allowed to freeze over again, the service will run 24 hours a day from now until it is replaced by the ice crossing.

The news came as a relief to grocery stores, which were caught off-guard by the unexpected shutdown. The town's major stores quickly ran out of milk and were running short on packaged bread, fresh meat and other perishables without the road link to the South.

Louis Levesque, who manages the Yellowknife Direct Charge Co-op, said the store often flies merchandise in during the spring breakup, when moving ice shuts the ferry down for extended periods, but said it was unusual to see a lengthy interruption.

It also came as good news to stranded Christmas travellers and people who had to travel south for the New Year. NWT residents tied up the ministry's ferry information all day yesterday, wanting to know when the craft might be back in service again.

Les Shaw of the territorial Transportation Department said early this week that the work of clearing a channel is a task that has to be done a few times every year, but this year's mild winter meant that the crossing froze over much later than usual.

"It's normal, it's just three weeks late," he said.

Other ice crossings in the South Mackenzie are already in and carrying various loads. As of Tuesday, the Liard River crossing was rated to 33,000 kilograms while the Nahanni Butte winter road was rated to 4,000 kilograms.

The ice road from Yellowknife to Dettah is still open to a maximum load of 3,500 kilograms and traffic is being restricted to a maximum speed of 30 km/h.