SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Lee Van Barneveld may joke about the hot weather Yellowknife has been experiencing lately, but he isn't joking about the amount of work his company, NWT Construction, is getting this summer.

Lee Van Barneveld, left, and Darrell Gibson of NWT Construction work on the McDonald Drive paving project July 30. - Terrence McEachern/NNSL photo

The 23-year-old Skid steer operator arrived from Prince George, B.C., in mid-June, roughly the same time that NWT Construction's roadwork projects in Yellowknife began.

Currently, the construction company is working on McDonald Drive. The road has been stripped and is being prepared to be paved this week, said Darrell Gibson, 29, a foreman with NWT Construction. Gibson has been working in the construction industry for the past 10 years, including five in Yellowknife. After stripping the road, the next steps are to place a matrix-based concrete membrane on the road, and then put a base on top of the membrane before paving, he said.

The work is a part of a $2.5 million contract awarded to NWT Construction by the City of Yellowknife for road work in several parts of the city, said Jordin LeBlanc, works engineer with the municipality.

NWT Construction has contracted out part of the work to another local company, Proform Concrete Services. Proform is responsible for the new curbs, sidewalks and gutters for the paving project.

Originally based in Red Deer, Alta., Proform has been involved in contracting work in Yellowknife since 1994. The work was so frequent that last winter the company decided to branch out to the Yellowknife area and open a shop in Kam Lake.

"That contract makes it worthwhile to come to Yellowknife," said Lawrence Sutherland, project manager for Proform. "If it wasn't for that contract, we wouldn't be coming up here." Proform currently has 12 people working on McDonald Drive. "It pretty much takes up the whole summer for some of our guys," he said.

Van Barneveld was one of five NWT Construction workers on the McDonald Drive site July 30. Depending on the weather, he could work between 10 and 12 hours a day, he said.

After McDonald Drive, the companies will be working on Franklin Avenue between Mac's Convenience Store and the fire hall as well as Haener Drive and Gitzel Street, and do patchwork in several other places throughout the city, said Leblanc.

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