Tlicho winter roads behind schedule
Gameti community official says delays mean groceries have to be flown in
John McFadden
Northern News Services
Monday, February 15, 2016
GAMETI/RAE LAKES
Gameti's Senior Administrative Officer says a two-and-a-half-week delay in the opening of the Tlicho winter road is driving up the price of food.
Judal Dominicata said groceries are already expensive in Gameti but having to fly them in for a longer period of time than usual exacerbates the situation.
"It costs lots on money and time. We have lots of heavy items that have to be brought into the community. We want the ice toad to open so we can save some money," he said. "We are running low on some things like food and fuel and the road isn't going to be open until the end of the month."
Relatively mild temperatures and heavier than usual snowfall has led to thinner ice, meaning that the opening of the Tlicho winter roads, which lead to Whati, Wekweeti and Gameti, have been delayed.
The stretch from Highway 3 to Whati opened to cars and pick up trucks on Feb. 5. But it would normally be open by about Jan. 24, according to Michael Conway, regional superintendent for the department of transportation (DOT).
"We're probably about two and a half weeks behind schedule," Conway said. "We're at least two weeks from getting into Gameti and about three weeks getting into Wekweeti." Conway said steady temperatures are more conducive to ice road building than fluctuating temperatures. Last week's colder temperatures helped the ice road building process.
"We have two crews currently working, one towards Gameti, straight north of Whati and the one that goes to the northeast goes to Wekweeti," Conway said. "The plan normally is that the community of Wekweeti will do about 60 kilometres of road leading from the community and the contractor from the south does the other 140 kilometres. When you get too far away from your community, suddenly you need camps, you need cooks and some of the other things that go along with camps."
The are 480 kilometres in total making up the Tlicho winter roads, said Conway, adding that about 50 per cent of the Tlicho winter roads are across frozen lakes.
Even though they are behind schedule, Conway pointed out they did manage to have the road open to Whati in time for the Tlicho Assembly last week.
He said he expects weight restrictions to increase provided the weather stays cold. He added that a loaded re-supply truck weighs about 40,000 kilograms - roughly half of that cargo. So even when the roads do open, they won't be able to hold loaded supply trucks right away.
"If we can only get up to say 30,000 kilograms, then that's a half load. The truck makes the same amount of money whether he's fully loaded or half loaded so the community has to make up the difference," Conway said. "The community has ordered a full truck load of supplies but if they can only get a half load on the truck it pretty much doubles the cost."
