Tibbitt to Contwoyto Winter Road
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Tibbitt to Contwoyto Winter Road is a 568 kilometres (353 miles) long annual ice road first built in 1982 to service mines and exploration activities in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut in northern Canada. The road is the world's longest heavy haul ice road. Most of the road (87%) is built over frozen lakes, 495 km (308 mi), with the remaining 73 km (45 mi) built on over 64 land portages between lakes.
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[edit] Construction and Operation
The road is constructed during January with plows, graders, water trucks, bulldozers, snow blowers, and specialized low ground pressure equipment. The road is built extra wide so storms do not block them and for extra spacing when opposing trucks are passing each other. The first vehicle along each season is a Swedish-made Hägglund army-type reconnaissance vehicle designed to float if it falls through the ice; it tows an ice-thickness-detecting sonar. Behind it the snow is cleared off the road, as without the snow acting as heat insulation the ice under the road freezes faster and thicker. The road is 50 metres (164 feet) wide on the ice, but narrower on land portages ranging between 12 m (39 ft) and 15 m (49 ft) wide. Once initially built, the road is checked by drilling holes into the ice. If the ice needs to be thickened, water trucks are called in to add water to that specific area. The road is only operational during February and March, an average of 67 days per year. The ice has been proven by engineers to support light vehicle loads at 70 centimetres (30 inches) and increasing to full highway truck loads as the ice thickens, often exceeding 100 cm (40 in).
On some lakes, traffic may be re-routed to new lanes to avoid damaged or rough sections of ice, and additional "express lanes" allow returning, empty trucks to travel at higher speeds.
The highest allowable speed for fully loaded trucks on the ice is 25 km/h (16 mph) with some areas reduced to only 10 km/h (6 mph). Empty trucks have a maximum speed limit of 60 km/h (37 mph) on the ice. Speed limits are strictly enforced by security personnel with radar used to clock speeds just as national and provincial police forces do.
There are three road camps servicing drivers hauling loads along the road, they are at: Dome Lake Maintenance Camp , Lockhart Lake and Lac de Gras. Dome Lake is for maintenance crew and emergency use for drivers, Lockhart Lake provides drivers with food, shower, and a place to do laundry. Lac de Gras is for road crews, emergency use and for driver facilities for drivers traveling north of Ekati.
Truck drivers are not allowed to travel the winter road alone, therefore, up to four trucks are dispatched from Yellowknife, Northwest Territories every 20 minutes. Heavy and wide loads are dispatched from Yellowknife between 12:00 am and 6:00 am to avoid daily commuter traffic.[1]
Diesel fuel is the largest item trucked north on the road. Other supplies include cement, tires, prill (ammonium nitrate) for explosives manufacture, construction materials, and machinery parts.
[edit] History
| Year | Road Opened | Road Closed | Storm Closures | Super B Capacity Reached |
Number of Truck Loads North |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | January 29 | April 3 | n/a | n/a | 3,703 |
| 2001 | February 1 | April 13 | 11.8 days | ~March 3 | 7,981 |
| 2002 | January 26 | April 16 | 9.7 days | February 22 | 7,735 |
| 2003 | February 1 | April 2 | 3.5 days | February 21 | 5,243 |
| 2004 | January 28 | March 31 | 3.3 days | February 23 | 5,091 |
| 2005 | January 26 | April 5 | 4.5 days | February 20 | 7,607 |
| 2006 | February 4 | March 26 | 11.6 days | not reached | 6,841 |
| 2007 | January 27 | April 9 | 3.0 days | February 26 | 10,922 |
| 2008 | January 29 | April 7 | TBC | February 15 | 7,387 |
| 2009 | February 1 | March 25 | ~1.5 days | February 15 | 5,377 |
The Tibbitt to Contwoyto Ice Road follows part of the original road that was cleared to the Tundra Mine in 1960-1961 by John Denison. This road began at Discovery Mine which was already connected to Yellowknife by ice road up the Yellowknife River and swung east to Gordon Lake, heading north up Drybones, Lockhart and Mackay Lakes where the Tundra Mine was located. This route was used until 1968 when the mine closed.
The road was reopened in 1979 as part of a equipment haul to the new Lupin Mine at Contwoyto Lake, Nunavut, pioneered by Robinson's Trucking and Hugh Arden. It followed the old Discovery Mine to Gordon Lake route. An experimental operation, Lupin decided not to continue using the road at this time and relied instead on Herc aircraft to haul in machinery during construction of the mine.
In 1983, the ice road to Lupin Mine reopened as an economic alternative to yearly freight haul using aircraft. The section between Tibbitt Lake (at the end of the Ingraham Trail) and Gordon Lake was built at this time. Another gold mine, the Salmita Mine (operated between 1983-1987) also benefited from this ice road.
Until 1998, the road was licensed and operated by Echo Bay Mines Limited, owners of the Lupin Mine.
Since 1999, the road has been licensed and operated by the Tibbitt to Contwoyto Winter Road Joint Venture, a partnership between: Echo Bay Mines Ltd., BHP Billiton, and Diavik Diamond Mines Inc (Rio Tinto Group). The road is engineered by EBA Engineering Ltd. Currently, Nuna Logistics (primary road) and RTL Enterprises Ltd. (secondary road) are responsible for the annual construction, maintenance, dispatching, and camp catering for the winter road. Security on the road is provided by SecureCheck.
The year 2007 saw record usage of the ice road with 10,922 loads north, totaling 331,000 tonnes (325,772 long tons or 364,865 short tons). That record number doesn't include the 818 back hauls south, totaling 15,000 t (14,763 L/T or 16,535 S/T). The road was open for 73 days from January 27 to April 9, only closed for a total of 91.5 hours (70 hours due to storms and 21.5 hours due to minor incidents). There were over 700 drivers registered during 2007 with nine accidents and one minor injury (a bruised shoulder). During the record 2007 season, there were 120 infractions with vast majority resulting in verbal warnings. Nine five-day suspensions and seven season suspensions were issued.[2]
In 2007 the road was featured on The History Channel series called Ice Road Truckers. The mining company that owned the road where the first season was filmed felt that the show portrayed the road in a negative fashion, and decided not to participate in future seasons of the show. A new rule for the Tibbitt to Contwoyto Winter Roads was enacted for the 2008 season prohibiting commercial, media, video or rolling film cameras either inside or attached to the outside of vehicle. The show's producers said that they had located an alternate ice road and that there would be a second season of the show;[3][4] the road featured in season 2 was the Tuktoyaktuk Winter Road.
In 2008 the ice road opened to Hot Shots (Grocery Truck Drivers) on January 28 and to regular traffic on January 29. [2] On March 28 it was announced that the road would be closed for the season at 18:00 on March 31. The road was officially closed for the season on April 7, 2008.[5]
[edit] Route
The ice road begins about 70 km (43 mi) east of Yellowknife at the end of Highway 4, more commonly known as the Ingraham Trail.
From there, it winds its way north the following destinations:
- Tibbitt Lake (start of road) - 0 km (0 mi)
- Meadows Station Security Checkpoint - 7 km (4 mi)
- Dome Lake Maintenance Camp - 35 km (22 mi)
- Lockhart Lake Rest Stop - 170 km (106 mi)
- Snap Lake Diamond Mine Project, Northwest Territories, owned by De Beers Canada Inc. - 264 km (164 mi)
- Gahcho Kue Diamond Mine Project, Northwest Territories, owned by a joint-venture between Mountain Province Diamonds and De Beers Canada Inc.
- Lac de Gras Rest Stop (for Lupin/Jericho traffic only) - 350 km (217 mi)
- Diavik Diamond Mine, Northwest Territories, owned by a joint venture between the Harry Winston Diamond Corporation and Diavik Diamond Mines Inc., a subsidiary of Rio Tinto Group - 373 km (232 mi)
- Misery, Northwest Territories, satellite mining camp of the Ekati Diamond Mine - 378 km (235 mi)
- Ekati Diamond Mine, Northwest Territories, owned by BHP Billiton - 405 km (252 mi)
- Lupin Gold Mine, Nunavut, owned by Echo Bay Mines Limited - 568 km (353 mi)
- Jericho Diamond Mine, Nunavut, owned by Tahera Diamond Corporation - 600 km (373 mi)
The road ends in Jericho Diamond Mine, at the north end of Contwoyto Lake, Nunavut.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Nuna Logistics Ltd. "The Winter Road". http://www.nunalogistics.com/projects/winter_road/. Retrieved 2007-08-15.
- ^ a b Tibbitt to Contwoyto Winter Road Joint Venture. "The Tibbitt to Contwoyto Winter Road". http://jvtcwinterroad.ca/. Retrieved 2007-08-15.
- ^ Tibbitt to Contwoyto Winter Road 2008 orientation materials http://jvtcwinterroad.ca/Orientation/Part4.PDF
- ^ "Producers find new ice road for TV series" (in English). Landline Magazine. Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association. 2008-02-05. http://www.landlinemag.com/todays_news/Daily/2008/Feb08/020408/020508-07.htm. Retrieved 2008-02-21.
- ^ Tibbitt to Contwoyto Winter Road Joint Venture. "2008 Winter Road Updates". http://jvtcwinterroad.ca/Updates2008.asp. Retrieved 2008-04-07.
[edit] External links
- Government of Northwest Territories
- Nuna Logistics
- Tibbitt to Contwoyto Winter Road Joint Venture
- 1959 John Denison's Ice Roads NWT Historical Timeline, Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre
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