Dettah ice road behind schedule
Department of Transportation cites unseasonably warm weather
John McFadden
Northern News Services
Wednesday, December 23, 2015
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Relatively mild temperatures, thin ice and plenty of snow have combined to keep the Dettah ice road from being opened in time for Christmas.
It is believed to be the first time in at least a decade that the ice road, linking Yellowknife to Dettah, has not been in operation heading into the holidays.
That is according to Michael Conway, North Slave regional superintendent for the Department of Transportation, who has been in charge of building the road for the past 10 years.
"We had the crew out (Sunday) and they were doing ice testing," he said. "We use Argos, a vehicle that floats. I don't know if we were surprised or not but there certainly isn't near as much ice as there has been in other years. We've got a fairly low amount of ice in some areas and unfortunately we're not going to be able to start construction on the Dettah ice road until we get more cold weather and more ice,"
"Normally we have it in by Christmas - between the 20th and the 24th. The amount of ice we have now versus the among of ice we need - it'll probably take another week of cold weather before we're able to send the equipment out there and support it."
Conway estimates crews will take a long look at starting construction next week but said it will be entirely dependent on the weather. Forecasters are predicting temperatures will drop to about -29 C tomorrow and -30 C for both Christmas and Boxing Day.
"We're probably around 27 centimetres (of ice thickness). We like to see it closer to 37 centimetres before we put our lighter equipment out - our lighter plows," Conway said. "If we can get a couple of centimetres growth a day over the next five or six days - we're hoping that's going to come but it's a guess. If it gets warm again it's going to go slower. It's a big lake. There are lots of things that affect it."
On top of the mild temperatures, Conway said the relatively heavy snowfall has also set winter road construction back.
'"When you get snow on top of ice it acts as an insulating blanket. If you have a lot of snow and very little cold weather you just don't get the ice growth you would normally get," Conway said.
He added the good news is the re-construction of the Dettah access road from the community to the Ingraham Trail was completed this fall, meaning that road is smoother and safer than it ever has been.
Conway said that the thin ice is also setting back construction of the Tlicho winter roads to Gameti, Whati and Wekweeti and Marian Lake.
"Our reports from our people who have been out there looking around are that there is certainly less ice this year than there has over the past eight, nine, 10 years," Conway said.
"We'll be taking a look at those probably for early January."
