Guide to 2019’s NWT highway construction season
Travelling this summer? Here’s where you can expect construction delays.
A spokesperson for the Department of Infrastructure said it cannot yet provide a dollar figure for the work, as some contracts are still being awarded. In 2018, the territory spent around $50 million on road repairs and upgrades.
Construction season began with work on Highways 1, 3, and 8 this month.
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On Highway 1, 15 km of road is being redone between Kakisa and the Sambaa K’e access road. A culvert is being repaired about half an hour outside Wrigley.
Around 10 km of Highway 3 is being repaired just outside Behchokǫ̀ heading toward Yellowknife.
Chipseal is also being laid over 40 km of road between Fort Providence and Behchokǫ̀.
On Highway 8, a two-kilometre stretch is being repaired just after the Mackenzie River Crossing on the way to Inuvik. Two culverts are also being replaced along the same stretch of road.
And in Inuvik, 10 km of the airport access road is being reconstructed and chipsealed.
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One project has been going since March: on Highway 4, a couple of kilometres of road is being reconstructed just outside Dettah.
Outside Hay River, work continues on the Pine Point Bridge. It is expected to be completed by October.
Starting in June, work will begin on Highways 5 and 6. Chipseal will be overlaid in two places along both roads. In total, Highway 5 will have 85 km and Highway 6 will have 66 km of freshly chipsealed road by August.
On the Kátł’odeeche First Nation access road, surface repairs are planned and the road will be chipsealed.
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And in September, work on the Tłı̨chǫ all-season road is expected to start. The road will stretch from Highway 3 to Whatì.
The project, which will take until November 2022 to complete, is currently in the permitting and regulatory phase.
The Department of Infrastructure also has a handful of projects with start and end dates still to be decided, including work on a couple of kilometres of Highway 7 between the NWT and British Columbia border before Fort Liard, and paving a pedestrian trail from downtown Yellowknife to the Niven Lake subdivision.
The territory also plans to upgrade the Rae access road, resurface part of the Jean Marie River access road, complete erosion and sediment control on the Canyon Creek access road, and remediate the Blackwater River Bridge along the Mackenzie Valley winter road.
The rehabilitation of the Trout River Bridge and the Jean Marie River Bridge has been postponed until a later date.