The Inuvik–Tuktoyaktuk Highway (ITH), officially Northwest Territories Highway 10, is an

all-weather road A road is a linear way for the conveyance of traffic that mostly has an improved surface for use by vehicles (motorized and non-motorized) and pedestrians. Unlike streets, the main function of roads is transportation. There are many types of ...

between

Inuvik Inuvik (''place of man'') is the only town in the Inuvik Region, and the third largest community in Canada's Northwest Territories. Located in what is sometimes called the Beaufort Delta Region, it serves as its administrative and service cen ...

and

Tuktoyaktuk Tuktoyaktuk , or ''Tuktuyaaqtuuq'' (Inuvialuktun: ''it looks like a caribou''), is an Inuvialuit hamlet located in the Inuvik Region of the Northwest Territories, Canada, at the northern terminus of the Inuvik–Tuktoyaktuk Highway.Montgomery, ...

in the

Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal territory of Canada. ...

, Canada. It is the first all-weather road to Canada's Arctic Coast. The idea for the highway had been considered for decades; however, final approval was not until 2013, with construction beginning in 2014. It was officially opened on November 15, 2017, opening up Tuktoyaktuk to year-round vehicle traffic, which is hoped to increase tourism in the area.

History and construction

Before the construction of the all-weather highway, the

Tuktoyaktuk Winter Road Tuktoyaktuk Winter Road, an extension of the Dempster Highway, was an ice road on frozen Mackenzie River River delta, delta channels and the frozen Arctic Ocean between the Northwest Territories communities of Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk, in Canada. ...

, an

ice road An ice road or ice bridge is a human-made structure that runs on a frozen water surface (a river, a lake or a sea water expanse).Masterson, D. and Løset, S., 2011, ISO 19906: Bearing capacity of ice and ice roads, Proceedings of the 21st Inte ...

, connected Inuvik with

during the winter months across the frozen Mackenzie River

delta Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), a letter of the Greek alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * D ( NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta") * Delta Air Lines, US * Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19 Delta may also ...

channels and the frozen

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans. It spans an area of approximately and is known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, a ...

, which was up to deep underneath the highway. The concept of an all-season highway from Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk was first raised in the 1960s. In 1974,

Public Works Canada Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC; french: Services publics et Approvisionnement Canada)''Public Services and Procurement Canada'' is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Department of Public Works ...

completed a survey and technical study of a route between the towns. Upon campaigning during the 2011 election,

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Stephen Harper Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. Harper is the first and only prime minister to come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ...

announced that it was his intention to complete the highway extension to Tuktoyaktuk. The 2012 federal budget announced $150 million for the project, and this commitment was increased in March 2013 to $200 million. The highway was seen as both a symbolic effort to link Canada's coastlines by road, and an aid in

Arctic sovereignty The Arctic consists of land, internal waters, territorial seas, exclusive economic zones (EEZs) and international waters above the Arctic Circle (66 degrees 33 minutes North latitude). All land, internal waters, territorial seas and EEZs in the A ...

and access to natural resources. The

Inuvialuit The Inuvialuit (sing. Inuvialuk; ''the real people'') or Western Canadian Inuit are Inuit who live in the western Canadian Arctic region. They, like all other Inuit, are descendants of the Thule who migrated eastward from Alaska Alask ...

completed an environmental review of the project in January 2013 and provided their approval. In March 2013 the territorial legislature approved $65 million for construction of the all-weather highway. Construction of the highway began in January 2014, and was completed in two directions, with one crew working from the Inuvik side and a second working from the Tuktoyaktuk side.

Permafrost Permafrost is ground that continuously remains below 0 °C (32 °F) for two or more years, located on land or under the ocean. Most common in the Northern Hemisphere, around 15% of the Northern Hemisphere or 11% of the global surface ...

presented a challenge for construction of the highway, with the surface melting, leaving much of the construction area under water. The first three years of the project saw crews working 24 hours per day, in the extreme cold and high winds of the arctic winter. By April 2016 the road was fully connected, but not open to traffic. The highway opened on November 15, 2017 and includes eight bridges and 359

culvert A culvert is a structure that channels water past an obstacle or to a subterranean waterway. Typically embedded so as to be surrounded by soil, a culvert may be made from a pipe, reinforced concrete or other material. In the United Kingdom ...

s. With the completion of the highway, the original Tuktoyaktuk Winter Road was permanently closed at the end of the 2017 winter season. Inuvik Tuktoyaktuk Highway Project won a National Award for Engineering Project or Achievement in 2019 from Engineers Canada.

Issues

Since the 1980s, there has been a reduction in oil and gas exploration in the region which is serviced by the highway, specifically a 2016 moratorium on drilling in the

Canadian Arctic Northern Canada, colloquially the North or the Territories, is the vast northernmost region of Canada variously defined by geography and politics. Politically, the term refers to the three territories of Canada: Yukon, Northwest Territories and N ...

. The primary opportunity the new highway has brought has shifted from resource access to tourism, as it allows tourists to visit Tuktoyaktuk via road instead of plane or boat, which was the only means of access in the summer months. Also of concern is easier access to illegal drugs and alcohol in Tuktoyaktuk, which currently has restrictions on the amount of alcohol residents are allowed to possess. During the summer of 2017, 25 bottles of vodka were seized, which had been smuggled to Tuktoyaktuk via the highway, which was not open at the time.

Route description

The road begins at the end of the

Dempster Highway The Dempster Highway, also referred to as Yukon Highway 5 and Northwest Territories Highway 8, is a highway in Canada that connects the Klondike Highway in Yukon to Inuvik, Northwest Territories on the Mackenzie River delta. The highway crosses ...

in Inuvik, Northwest Territories and continues for north towards Tuktoyaktuk, a coastal community on the

. The ITH includes eight bridges, and is a two-lane gravel road for its entirety. On April 29, 2017, the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk ice road closed for the last time. All vehicle traffic between the two communities is now via the new all-weather road.

References

External links

Official siteMackenzie Valley HighwayBuild It and They Will Come Up the Inuvik Tuktoyaktuk Highway
(a visual overview of the project) {{DEFAULTSORT:Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway Northwest Territories territorial highways Roads within the Arctic Circle Gravel roads Transport infrastructure completed in 2017