INUVIK
Inuvik is about to be one step closer to "world class" Internet connectivity as the project to link the region through a single continuous fibre optic cable prepares to enter its third and final phase of development.

Marcus Van Zyl, project manager of the Mackenzie Valley Fibre Link Project, said Nov. 10 that although weather and soil conditions have presented some challenges to the cable's installation, it is just part of doing construction in this part of the world. - James Goldie/NNSL photo

On Nov. 19, representatives from Ledcor, the company responsible for constructing the cable line, gave a public presentation to update citizens and stakeholders on the project's current status.

"What we're trying to show here is the different operations that were involved and continue to be involved in the construction," Marcus Van Zyl, project manager of the Mackenzie Valley Fibre Link Project, told the audience.

By completion, 1,154 kilometres of fibre optic cable will run underground from McGill Lake to Inuvik. At each community along the way the company will establish a "point of presence" that gives a boost to the signal being transmitted and allows the fibre connection to be distributed within the communities.

During the winter 2015 building season, 220 kilometres of cable was installed travelling south from Inuvik. The line was also installed along the winter road between Fort Good Hope and Tulita. Then during the summer season, the cable was installed from McGill Lake to Wrigley.

The process has not been without its challenges.

"There were shortcomings in some of the work we did in the winter, and it's resulted in us having to go and start remediation work along many areas of the cable," he said, citing places where the cable was installed too tightly or where soil erosion had taken place around it.

Winter installation involves using rock saws to cut a trench the cable is lain in and buried.

"It's a very challenging project (with) very tight construction periods and very weather dependent," Van Zyl told the Inuvik Drum after his presentation.

"It's a challenging place logistically and (environmentally). And like many people before, we're having to do more remediation than we anticipated and that has caught us by surprise."

This remediation involves covering up the cable and working to ensure that the affected area's natural environment is restored following construction. Some audience members asked questions about the remediation process, and Van Zyl stated that wet conditions in the summer had caused more erosion than originally anticipated.

However, he did not say this factor changed the project's goal of completion by Sept. 1. He also assured audience members the company would not be importing plants from other regions as part of the remediation process.

"We're encouraging local vegetation, and we're using local willows and that sort of thing in the re-vegetation process, mainly to encourage the existing peat to grow back and cover over," he said.

"The remediation monitoring will take place from now until all the remediation re-vegetation has come back," said Peter Clarkson, the GNWT's director of regional operations for the Beaufort Delta and Sahtu. "That will be fairly intensive probably for the next four to five years."

Janet Boxwell, renewable resources manager at the Gwich'in Renewable Resources Board, came to the event to get caught up on how the project is going.

"People are interested in what the benefits are, what the line is going to do, but also what is the effect on the landscape," she said.

Boxwell said that the company was open about not being able to say with certainty there would not be an impact on the permafrost.

"That's being realistic and honest, so that's good," she said.

Van Zyl said the coming winter 2016 phase of construction will be busy, and he hopes that Inuvik continues to support their work.

"The community as a whole will have world class Internet connectivity at potentially the highest levels equivalent to anywhere else in Canada," he said.

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