MACKENZIE VALLEY
The Department of Transportation is feeling the pressure of getting ice roads and crossings open to Trout Lake and Nahanni Butte as crews headed out this week to start work.

The seasonal opening for Nahanni Butte's ice crossing is normally Dec. 9. However, crews were not able to start construction until Dec. 14 this year.

Dustin Dewar, regional highway manager for the department, said staff were testing the ice at Nahanni Butte's crossing on Dec. 9 and the 25-centimetre standard for critical ice thickness was just recently reached.

Dewar said the date of opening for Nahanni Butte's crossing is undetermined, adding that his hope is to get it open before Christmas.

"It's highly variable - every day, it changes," he said.

"If it's not safe, then it won't be open. It's dependent on a lot of variables right now, the main one being ice thickness."

Currently, crews are flooding the crossing with typhoon pumps. Dewar said the department will need to send in a snow cat to break up ice ridges that have formed.

"They don't have the capacity over there to complete the crossing themselves," he said.

"In the interest of public safety, we're kind of helping them along this year."

Nahanni Butte Dene Band Chief Peter Marcellais said the crossing began to freeze around mid-November. Community members have been able to walk across.

"We've still got a ways to go," he said.

"Hopefully we will be able to drive across for Christmas - that's on everybody's wishlist."

For Trout Lake, winter road construction began Dec. 11. Dewar said the road could be open as early as Dec. 18.

The seasonal average for that road is Dec. 24. At press time, Dewar was waiting for a status update on the Trout Lake crossing but said he has already been informed the road is much softer than in previous years.

"I think there will be some challenges there. It's yet to be seen what kind of trouble (the crews) will run into, but it is softer than usual," he said.

The warm temperatures this winter have put pressure on transportation crews, Dewar said, and may affect operations later in the year as well.

"The warm weather has affected us drastically," he explained.

"We're at least two to three weeks behind on everything, all along the Mackenzie Valley winter road and our crossings as well. We're trying to err on the side of caution and make sure we have the ice thickness, make sure it's safe."

Roads opening later could spell trouble for fuel resupply to communities further North as well.

"Typically, the later you have light traffic, the later you have heavy traffic. It's kind of a snowball effect," Dewar said.

"We're forced to expedite the crossings now and throw more man-hours at it to increase flooding and try to build it up that way, which wouldn't necessarily be (the case) if we were able to open the crossings early. We wouldn't be under that pressure to refuel communities in mid-to late-January."

Those pressures likely will bypass Nahanni Butte and Trout Lake. Dewar said the biggest pressure for those communities is opening the roads for holiday travel. The Department of Transportation announced the opening of the Wrigley to Tulia portion of the Mackenzie Valley winter road Dec. 18.

"It just makes it easier on the communities to be able to travel," he said.

"They want to get out for Christmas."

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