Paul Bickford
Northern News Services

Fort Liard (May 17/02) - Travel on two highways in the southern NWT has been temporarily disrupted by heavy spring run-off, while ice on the Mackenzie River began to break-up yesterday.

Highway 1 was flooded at Kilometre 288, between the Bouvier and Red Knife rivers.

As a result, the highway was closed Wednesday evening at the nearest intersections on either side of the flooded area - at Checkpoint on Highway 7 and at Highway 3. It reopened to single-lane traffic Thursday afternoon.

Meanwhile, in Fort Simpson, "house-size chunks of ice" were floating upstream past the village as the river began to break-up at 9:45 a.m. Art Barnes, the regional superintendent for the South Slave with the Department of Transportation, said the flooding occurred at three culverts under the highway. "They just couldn't handle the flow of water."

There is no river in the location, but the area collects spring run-off, he explained.

Fifty to 100 metres of the highway was under water. Barnes noted not that much traffic was affected.

Meanwhile, the Liard Highway was closed for a day and a half because of similar flooding at Kilometre 186 near Blackstone Park.

Les Shaw, the regional superintendent for the Deh Cho with the Department of Transportation, said the 65-metre stretch of highway was reopened to one-lane on Thursday morning and temporary repairs were proceeding to open two lanes. Complete repairs will be done in about three weeks when the area dries out.

Information roadblocks were set up at Checkpoint and at Fort Liard to let travellers know of the problem.

As for the ferry crossing on the Mackenzie River at Fort Providence, it is hoped it will be operational by the weekend of May 25-26.

Over the last 35 years, the average date for the first ferry crossing in the spring has been May 15. The latest was May 31 in 1962.

- with files from Mike W. Bryant in Fort Simpson.