Stephanie McDonald
Northern News Services
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
YELLOWKNIFE - Concerns over the sustainability of the Tibbitt to Contwoyto ice road are growing as winter temperatures and the number of diamond mines in the North increase.
Ice Road By The Numbers
First constructed in 1983, this year marks the 25th anniversary of operation for the Tibbitt to Contwoyto ice road.
Here are a few facts and figures about the busy winter route that is the lifeline for the North's diamond mines:
70,000-80,000 - the number of kilometres put on the rented security trucks between January and the end of March;
10 - number of security trucks on the road;
9,560 - loads hauled northbound as of March 21, including;
- 5,600 - loads of fuel;
- 793 - loads of ammonium nitrate;
- 691 - loads of cement;
- 195 - loads of steel;
- 121 - loads of equipment;
10-25 - speed limit for loaded transports in kilometres per hour;
35-60 - speed limit for empty trucks
(km-h);
80 - speed limit for small vehicles
(km-h);
70 - speed limit for trucks on the Ingraham Trail (km/h);
50,000 - liters of fuel in a full Super B-train tanker truck;
3,800 - loads Diavik expected to receive via the ice road this year
4,000 - number of loads Diavik has already received to date
3,500 - loads that BHP Billiton's Ekati mine wanted;
2,000 - loads De Beers expected for Snap Lake;
500 - loads Tahera's Jericho mine expected;
35-40 - workers at the Dome Lake camp;
49 - workers at the Lockhart camp;
45 - workers at the Lac de Gras camp;
160 -the width of the ice road in feet;
15 - hours from Yellowknife to Diavik;
16 - hours to Ekati;
21 - hours to Jericho;
26-27 - inches of ice needed to open road to light loads;
40-42 - inches needed for a fully loaded Super B train;
46-50 - inches of ice under this year's road.
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"The road has been so successful, it's taken for granted," said Tom Hoefer, winter road spokesperson and manager of external and internal affairs at Diavik Diamond Mines.
While 2007 has been a successful winter for the ice road due to consistently cold weather, the short 2006 season was a wake-up call about the vulnerability of the critical link.
When the road closed after only 42 days of operation in 2006, the diamond mines were faced with the difficult decision of both cutting back production and laying off workers or flying in supplies.
They chose the latter, but at an expensive cost.
Flying supplies to the mines costs four to eight times more per pound than transporting them by road.
"You can't keep hoping for cold weather," said Eric Madsen, director of winter road operations.
"The only thing that drives the North is mining," he said. "The economics of the North depend on this road."
BHP and Diavik are the joint managers of the road. With Diavik soon to go underground, the company will require additional loads shipped to the mine.
"The two mines alone can stress the road out," Hoefer said. "We are getting too much of the North's economy on this road."
Tahera and DeBeers are third party users of the route.
For the first time in the road's 25 years of operation, the Joint Venture Management Committee has created a secondary route from Gordon Lake to Prosperous Lake.
"The insurance route," as Madsen calls it, allows truckers to bypass Waite Lake, traditionally the weakest section of the road, which caused the short 2006 season.
The Joint Venture Management Committee has contracted a study on alternatives to the ice road.
The two primary options being examined are a Northern route, where supplies could be shipped to a port and sent south down a road to the mines. The other plan would mean an all-weather road extension to the Ingraham Trail.
The southern end of the 568-kilometre long road is slower to thicken and is always lost before the Northern section of the road.
With an all-weather road going even part way up the route, the mines could gain 30 to 40 days of hauling, Madsen said.
"So many people are relying on the road," Madsen said.
Regardless of what alternative is chosen and what the running surface is eventually made of, Madsen said he believes the Tibbitt to Contwoyto road will always be needed.
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