Northern News Services

Yellowknife ( Jun 07/00) - Driving the Ingraham Trail isn't going to be any less jarring an experience this year, says the territorial director of highways.

"We've got a pretty small budget this year, it's $494,000 and that doesn't really do a lot of anything," admits Rob Nelson.

The money was earmarked for Ingraham Trail reconstruction in the interim budget that runs until the 14th legislative assembly approves its first budget, sometime in late June or early July.

The 69-kilometre road, officially known as Highway 4, is a link for city residents to the recreational areas northeast of Yellowknife and households on the trail to the city. It is also heavily used in winter by trucks using the Lupin ice road, which starts at the end of the Ingraham Trail.

Nelson anticipates the half million dollars will pay for reconstruction and widening of three-quarters of a kilometre of the approach to the city centre.

The two-year project will widen the 1.7-kilometre hill leading down to the Giant Mine town site.

A stretch further down the road near the Yellowknife River bridge, where crews have been straightening a curve on the hill by re-routing it through a granite cliff, will be chip sealed by mid-July, said Nelson.

The government will call for tenders on this year's work in July. Construction is expected to begin in August.

In 1998-99, the government spent $691,000 to maintain the Ingraham Trail. Typically, maintenance of the road costs $10,400 per kilometre -- high, but not as high as Highway 3 between Rae and Yellowknife.

The cost of maintaining the drive to Yellowknife rises sharply once you reach Rae-Edzo and the Precambrian Shield.

"For the section in the Precambrian Shield we're paying about $13,300 per kilometre," said Nelson. "It drops down to $6,200 and $4,300 as we get further away."

Waiting on the feds

Any acceleration of road re-construction plans hinges on getting money elsewhere.

Nelson said the department is still targeting 2010 for completion of reconstruction of Highway 3 to Rae.

"If someone gives us money for it, we'd be happy to speed it up," he said. "We could conceivably do it in a three-year period if we had the money, but we don't."

The territorial government is hoping to win a share of the $600 million in road funding the federal government identified in this year's budget.