Third construction season for Inuvik to Tuk Highway
By Bill Braden
Kevin McLeod is unequivocal when describing the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk Highway (ITH), now about to start its third construction season. McLeod, the Director of Highways and Marine for the Government of the Northwest Territories’ Department of Transportation, likens it to a “120-kilometer laboratory” constructed using a very unconventional “upside-down” approach. “This type of megaproject has never been seriously undertaken anywhere else in the world,” he says of the challenging and innovative highway project. “We’re at the edge of capacity for both equipment and technology.”
In southern Canada, roads are normally built during summer and fall seasons, but the ITH is a winter-only project, a key factor in preserving the easily-disturbed permafrost layers that underlie almost the entire route. “Permafrost is our foundation. It’s subject to sensitive changes in climate, to temperature, to water. We’re reinforcing the properties of permafrost, using frozen materials and keeping them frozen,” McLeod says. “We’re at the edge of a major alluvial plain… we’re using the local gravel, blasting it, drying it out. We try to compact it as much as we can, build it in layers, and finally cover it with crushed gravel.” The overall project, cost at $299 million and on schedule for completion by fall 2017, enters its third season over the winter of 2015-16. At the height of construction, some 600 workers will be on the job, hired through the contracting joint venture of E. Gruben Transportation from Tuktoyaktuk and Northwind Industries of Inuvik. The work is scheduled to run from December to April.
McLeod says the innovations have so far shown that while construction is more complex, a road can indeed be built over permafrost during winter months. As with any complex project, planning makes all the difference. “The research, analysis, options, and planning pays a ten-fold dividend when it comes to actually delivering on the project,” says McLeod. The ITH has attracted considerable attention from the engineering and highway construction community, prompting McLeod to plan an International Permafrost Summit in 2016, open to the world, to showcase the project and bring together other cutting-edge permafrost builders. For more information go to ith.dot.gov.nt.ca/ CN
