SOUTH SLAVE - The highways to Fort Smith and Fort Resolution will be getting more chipsealing in the summer of 2011.

According to a Department of Transportation official, Highway 5 to Fort Smith will get 40 km of new chipsealing on the section heading west from the turnoff to Little Buffalo River. That's where the chipsealing from Fort Smith currently ends.

However, Fort Smith Mayor Janie Hobart said the extent of the project is disappointing.

Hobart said the town was given to believe earlier this year that the "full distance" of the gravel section of Highway 5 - just over 100 km - would be chipsealed by 2011.

The mayor said the unchipsealed section of Highway 5 limits Fort Smith's ability to attract tourists and new residents, and affects negatively on the business community.

She said she will be raising the issue with the GNWT.

Highway 6 to Fort Resolution will get about 22 km of new chipsealing in 2011 from Little Buffalo River into the community.

"To generalize on it, people are happy with it," said Tausia Kaitu'u-Lal, the senior administrative officer with the Hamlet of Fort Resolution. "We hope the work continues to get the rest of the highway chipsealed, as well."

Larry Purcka, the Department of Transportation's head of design and technical support services, and acting head of design and construction, said preparatory work on both highways started last summer.

Along Highway 5, aggregate was produced, some culverts were replaced and improvements were made to the structural base of the roadway.

This year, the remaining culverts will be put into place, the structural base will be upgraded and the roadway will be widened.

"We want the base to stabilize for at least a year," Purcka said.

The work so far has been similar on Highway 6, although the section to be chipsealed requires a little more of a construction effort because it is in a delta-type area.

Last summer, granular material was crushed and the installation of new culverts was pretty much completed.

This year, culvert installation will be completely finished and there will be ditching along the side of the highway.

Clearing of the right-of-way along Highway 6 began last fall and finished in March.

The clearing of the right of way is to allow ditches to be dug further away from the road surface, Purcka explained. "We want to keep the water as far away from the road as possible."

The actual chipsealing on both highways will be done at basically the same time in 2011.

"We can potentially get some savings by doing both projects at the same time," Purcka said.

The three-year project on Highway 5 will cost approximately $8 million, while the work on Highway 6 will cost about $7 million.

"At this point in time that's all the funding that we have," said Purcka, who said the funding comes from the GNWT.

The work will leave Highway 5 with a 64 km section of unchipsealed road, while Highway 6 will have about 40 km left to chipseal.

Purcka said it would cost nearly $20 million to finish chipsealing Highway 6 and an extra $15 million for Highway 5.

"It's not cheap," he said.

It is hoped that negotiations with Parks Canada may result in additional funding to complete the chipsealing of Highway 5.

The unchipsealed section of Highway 5 primarily lies within Wood Buffalo National Park.