The Deh Cho bridge celebrated its first birthday on Nov. 30. However, work will continue on the structure for at least another year. - NNSL file photo |
Happy birthday Deh Cho Bridge
In its first 12 months in operation, span draws $3.4 million in revenues, doesn't lower cost of goods in Yellowknife
Laura Busch
Northern News Services
Published Friday, December 6, 2013
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
On Nov. 30, 2012, the Deh Cho Bridge opened to much fanfare after decades of planning and debate.
Over the past 12 months, there have been hiccups - from an unexpected load restriction on Highway 3 in the spring that saw freight costs to the city increase - despite the permanent road link -to a bison outsmarting the $545,000 cattle gates and getting onto the bridge within two weeks of the gates' installation in October.
Ultimately, the span over the Mackenzie River is good for business and for Northerners because it takes the guesswork out of transporting goods to Yellowknife, said Department of Transportation Spokesperson Earl Blacklock.
"We don't have to run a ferry. We don't have to build an ice crossing. We don't have the economic effects that come with the shutdowns every year and the uncertainty," he said. "No manufacturer would have put even a small operation in the North Slave with the uncertainty of transportation."
Blacklock pointed to Fortune Minerals' NICO mine, located roughly 160 km from Yellowknife, 50 km west of Whati, as a project that could not have gone forward without the bridge. The gold-cobalt-bismuth-copper deposit was confirmed in 1996 but relies on a constant stream of vehicles shipping ore south to a processing plant in Saskatchewan.
In September, the company announced it will begin construction on the mine next year.
The bridge has not, however, lowered the cost of goods in Yellowknife, as now all transport trucks travelling northbound across the structure pay a toll based on the number of axles they are using.
At the Yellowknife Co-op, that means roughly $300 per unit eight times per week. For general manager Ben Walker, that cost is worth it because it eliminates "the agony of never knowing" when the river crossing would go out in the spring and the fall.
Unlike other Yellowknife businesses, the grocery store did not have the option to wait out the shoulder seasons. During spring break up, it regularly doled out $80,000 to helicopter goods across the river to waiting transport trucks on the other side. In the fall, when temperatures were too cold to fly goods in open-air containers, costs ballooned to an additional $20,000 per tractor-trailer load to fly shipments by plane from Fort Providence to Yellowknife, said Walker.
"For years, we've never put the price of anything up a penny," he said. "It came off our bottom line and it came out of our members' dividends."
Walker expected these avoided costs to more than cancel out the added cost of bridge tolls - but that didn't quite work out this year because of the unexpected load restriction in the spring which meant shipments had to be loaded into more trucks, adding freight cost.
"It wasn't quite the windfall that we thought it was going to be," he said. "But on the whole, are we pleased with the new bridge? We certainly are. Do we wish we didn't have to pay the tolls to cross the bridge? Of course we do, but that's not the way it works.
"I'm so glad that we joined the rest of Canada. I think it's real progress."
From the Department of Transportation's perspective, the bridge's first year of operations has gone better than expected, said Blacklock.
Although Kevin McLeod, director of highways, confirmed last week that commercial bridge tolls collected by the DOT have been more than 15 per cent less than expected, Blacklock said that is not exactly the case.
"Our projections are based on the fiscal year," he said. "By this March, we actually expect that traffic may be a little higher than the projection."
The department expects 18,500 commercial vehicles to cross the bridge each year - from March to March - bringing in $4 million in revenues. In the past 12 months, the department has collected roughly $3.4 million in revenues and 15,400 commercial vehicles crossed the bridge.
These numbers don't have Blacklock worried because he suspects shippers stockpiled goods last winter to avoid the toll, which came into effect on Dec. 1.
"For the first fiscal year ending in March 2014, we expect to have that to at least be 18,500 because of the new diamond mine, Gahcho Kue," he said.
Construction work on the bridge ended for the season in October but travellers can expect to see crews back on the structure next summer, when they are scheduled to raise the guardrails, replace the scour rock at the base of the piers, and complete a visual inspection on pier three south - which may or may not require more extensive work to repair.
The structure is expected to be completely finished by the fall of 2014.
While tolls will increase annually to keep pace with inflation, Blacklock expects the department to wait at least five years before it examines whether traffic flow and revenue warrant a more major adjustment to the cost of hauling goods over the span.
