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TULITA/FORT NORMAN
As of midnight on Jan. 19, the Tulita winter road was scheduled to reopen to traffic once more after having been closed since the evening of Jan. 15.

Piloted, one-way traffic was set to start in each direction from Wrigley northbound, then from Tulita southbound.

The road was closed due to severe weather conditions and high levels of traffic. The condition of the road made it unsafe to continue operating, according to Earl Blacklock, spokesperson for the Department of Transportation. He said sometimes at the bottom of hills on the road, inexperienced drivers will "bog down" and dig in at the bottom of the hill and, gradually, a pothole is created.

"Once you get enough of those on the road, you start to get compound damage with each truck. Some places we actually had to build the road from scratch," said Blacklock.

Between Jan. 17 and 18, one commercial vehicle ignored the closed status of the road and caused damage which delayed the return to service. Highway traffic officers will prosecute those who disobey winter road closures or traffic that is not part of the piloted convoy.

Each one-way trip is expected to take between four and six hours and no passing is permitted.

Blacklock said the majority of vehicles are travelling the winter road for energy industry resupply heading mainly to Norman Wells. He said as of Friday afternoon, there were about 40 vehicles on the Sahtu side waiting to travel the road.

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