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magazine / nd07
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November/December 2007 issue |
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FEATURE
Diamond alley
The world’s longest ice road is a winter supply route for four Northwest Territories mines and a marvel of engineering
Photography by Loïc Seron with story by Hélèna Katz
For most of the year, the world’s longest ice road is a series of lakes
strung together by 64 portages. But in winter, this rugged network is
transformed into a vital supply route snaking its way across the Barren
Lands from Tibbitt Lake, 70 kilometres east of Yellowknife, to
Contwoyto Lake, nearly 600 kilometres north, in western Nunavut.
Thousands of rigs thread their way along the frozen highway each year,
hauling fuel, cement, equipment and supplies to four diamond mines
and several exploration sites otherwise accessible only by air.
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The Northwest Territories is criss-crossed by 2,200 kilometres of
all-weather highways. Ice roads add another 1,400 kilometres to the
system. The most northern ice road links Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk, on
the Beaufort Sea. The Tibbitt-to-Contwoyto Winter Road is owned
by the Joint Venture Management Committee (JVMC), made up of
BHP Billiton Diamonds Inc. and Diavik Diamond Mines Inc., two
of the mining companies that use the road.
There’s more than big rigs riding on these ice roads. Trucks can haul
in a year’s worth of supplies for one-quarter to one-eighth the price of
air cargo. So when a road is out of service, costs quickly escalate. As
climate change takes its toll, warmer weather has delayed ice-road
openings by as much as two weeks and made it harder to construct the
roads. “The major problem is building sufficient thicknesses of ice to
support commercial vehicles,” says Greg Cousineau, senior transportation
planner with the N.W.T. government.
For the rest of this story, visit your local newsstand or go to our store to buy this issue.
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