INUVIK
Approximately 29 kilometres of the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway has been built this past winter as the project kicked off.

Sydney Dunlop, an equipment operator for EGT-Northwind, demonstrated the company's simulators during an April 30 media tour. The machines allow new drivers to begin to learn the necessary skills to operate the heavy equipment being used on the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway project. - Shawn Giilck/NNSL photo

That's less than the 40-kilometre-per-year pace called for in the project plans, but neither the contractor nor the NWT Department of Transportation seems too concerned about it.

The 140-kilometre permanent, all-season highway is estimated to cost $299 million over four years of construction. The federal government is providing $200 million of that total, with the GNWT expected to fund the rest.

It will be Canada's first road to the Arctic coast.

Wainman said about 13 kilometres of the road were built along the south end of the highway, while about 16 kilometres were built on the north end from Tuktoyaktuk.

The plan is to build the highway from both ends and meet in the middle in year three of the construction. That's a pace of 20 kilometres a year over the three years from each end of the highway, which will be 120-kilometres long.

An additional 20-kilometre road south of Tuktoyaktuk to the highway has already been built.

The project got off to a later-than-planned start over the winter due to equipment delays, said Larry Purcka, the assistant director of the project, and Kurt Wainman, the owner of Northwind Industries.

Northwind Industries has formed a joint-venture company with E. Gruben's Transportation out of Tuktoyaktuk which is the principal contractor on the project.

Approximately 80 per cent of the 300 or so people working on the construction are from the delta region, Purcka said.

There was a delay in starting the project for two reasons, Purcka said. First, the contract with EGT-Northwind wasn't finalized until mid-December. After that, there was a delay while the company brought in a large number of heavy equipment units needed for the work.

So far, EGT-Northwind has purchased about $150 million worth of equipment needed for the work, said Purcka.

That also meant people had to be trained for the work. Northwind Industries uses an advanced "simulator" machine to provide basic training for drivers, who are then sent on to do field work under the eye of driving supervisors and instructors.

Northwind staff member Terry Halifax said young people quickly take to the simulators, which are similar to a video game. Older workers sometimes have a problem adapting to the simulator.

Sydney Dunlop, an equipment operator with EGT-Northwind, demonstrated one of the units, which required her to drive through a simulation of a forested work area. She praised the machine, saying it was quite helpful in her training.

The wait for the equipment left about two months of prime construction time in the winter months, rather than three, four or five months, Purcka added.

Due to the warmer-than-normal spring conditions, the project shut down for the season on April 28 or 29. It will resume on a small scale during the warmer months as conditions dry out while preparations continue for a full season in year two of the project.

The muddy and wet conditions prevented Purcka and Wainman from being able to offer a more comprehensive tour of the highway to the media on April 30.

The route has been blocked off in an effort to prevent the public from damaging the unfinished road, which still needs some more work and compacting in the next few months to stabilize it.

Contrary to public belief in the delta region, Purcka said the highway will be considered the northern part of the future Mackenzie Valley Highway that will link the southern stretches of the NWT to the delta region via Enterprise, rather than a continuation of the existing Dempster Highway.

He called it the largest project the GNWT has ever attempted, and the biggest he's ever worked on.

The road is being built without any digging into the ground, which also is quite unusual. It will sit entirely on a berm made of fill to insulate the frozen ground and prevent melting.

"If the ground thaws in conditions like these, the road melts away," Purcka said. "We're trying to draw the frost up into the core to help keep it frozen."

The only significant digging is being done in gravel pits adjacent to the project.

Those pits are owned by the Inuvialuit. Purcka would not reveal the amount of royalties being paid to the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation from those pits.

"You'd have to ask them about that," he said.

The highway is scheduled to be finished in 2018.