Winter road to mines on schedule
Tibbit to Contwotyo winter route set to open on Feb. 1
John McFadden
Northern News Services
Wednesday, January 11, 2017
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Less than usual snow on the ground has been a boon for construction on the Tibbitt to Contwoyto Winter Road, which is ahead of schedule.
A snowplow works on the Tibbitt to Contwotyo Winter Road in this undated photo. The 400-kilometre mine supply route is on target to be open to commercial traffic by Feb. 1. - photo courtesy of Ron Near |
That is according to Ron Near, who oversees the construction and maintenance of the road. He said he expects the road to be open by Feb. 1 with more than half of construction already completed. Near said ice conditions are better this year compared to last year due to colder temperatures, however he said a lack of snow has given road builders some added challenges.
"We sit and we wait for it to snow," Near joked when asked how they are dealing with low snowfall amounts. "If we have to, we plow snow off the lakes and use it for portages between lakes. This is certainly not the first year we have experienced a lack of snow. It's not new to us and we have contingency plans in place."
It takes hundreds of workers to build the ice road, which is about 400 kilometres long, stretching from Tibbitt Lake at the end of the Ingraham Trail to the Ekati Diamond Mine. It used to be 600 kilometres long running up to the Lupin Gold Mine on Contwoyto Lake in Nunavut but was shortened after the mine closed just over a decade ago.
The road is expected to be open for about two months. It is constructed as a joint venture between Diavik Diamond Mine, Dominion Diamonds - owners of the Ekati Diamond mine - and De Beers which owns the dormant Snap Lake Mine and the newly built Gahcho Kue mine.
Near said the project is a huge undertaking and becomes one of the territory's largest employers each year. Including truck drivers, the project hires anywhere from 1,200 to 1,500 workers.
The road, 85 per cent of which runs across frozen water, costs between $17 million to $20 million each year to build, according to Near.
"It would cost six to ten times more if you had to fly everything in," Near said. "Fuel is the biggest commodity and then other bulks like cement. Depending what's going on at mine sites - it could be anything from soup to nuts."
This is Near's fifth year overseeing the project, however he has been involved in its construction for two decades.
It is expected that some 8,000 truck loads will be delivered to the mines this year. They will haul about 300,000 metric tonnes of freight.
The road, which has been described as the world's longest heavy haul ice road, was first built in 1982.
