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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Four years after the Department of Transportation announced plans to re-route the Ingraham Trail around Giant Mine, a preferred bypass route has been chosen.

This map shows the three possible paths for a new bypass for the Ingraham Trail. The Department of Transportation prefers the route that cuts through the Fred Henne Territorial Park. Another option goes through the boat launch near Giant Mine and beside the Mining Heritage Centre, while a third grazes the dump. - illustration courtesy of the Department of Transportation

The favoured corridor begins at Fred Henne Territorial Park and connects to the Ingraham Trail just before the Yellowknife River bridge.

There were three options for re-routing the road, all of which have been on display since 2007. The second option runs past the landfill, veering northwest. The third runs closer to the shore of Back Bay, grazing the Mining Heritage Centre and the boat launch near Giant Mine.

All three options lead back to the Ingraham Trail just before the Yellowknife River bridge.

The Department of Transportation has been holding public consultations over the past year to determine the best route. The preferred corridor was announced at the latest consultation, held at Northern United Place Sept. 1.

Larry Purcka, the Department of Transportation's head of design and technical support services, said the route is the longest and most expensive – estimated at $17 million – but has the most benefits.

He said the key objective is to make the route more efficient and safe.

Some of the benefits of the preferred route through Fred Henne Territorial Park is it will improve access to the Ingraham Trail for public and truck traffic, it bypasses the mine clean-up areas, the landfill and the Mining Heritage Society's future museum site, and it also creates opportunities to develop the territorial park.

The route would also allow work on the road and the Giant Mine remediation project to take place simultaneously.

Purcka said although it is the favoured route, further consultations are needed before work will begin on the road.

After consultations with the city, local aboriginal groups and the public are complete, if everyone is on board with the department's preferred route, then detailed engineering will be completed and a development permit will be submitted to the city.

"If all goes well, we hope to have the road open to the public by November 2012," he said, noting the hope is for the project to be complete by September 2013.

"I think this is a very exciting project with an aggressive schedule," said Purcka. "We're up for it, though."

The highway relocation is prompted by the dangerous and deteriorating nature of the route around Giant Mine, and has been in the works since the summer of 2007.

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