The Mackenzie Highway is a Canadian highway in northern

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

and 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. ...

. It begins as

Alberta Highway 2 Alberta Provincial Highway No. 2, commonly referred to as Highway 2 or the Queen Elizabeth II Highway, is a major highway in Alberta that stretches from the Canada–United States border through Calgary and Edmonton to Grande Pr ...

at ''Mile Zero'' in

Grimshaw, Alberta Grimshaw is a town in northern Alberta, Canada. It is approximately west of the Town of Peace River at the junction of Highway 2 and Highway 2A and along Mackenzie Northern Railway. By virtue of being the original starting point of Highway ...

. After the first , it becomes

Alberta Highway 35 Alberta Provincial Highway No. 35, commonly referred to as Highway 35, is a north–south highway in northwest Alberta, Canada that forms a portion of the Mackenzie Highway. Highway 35 is about long. From the south, Highway 35 ...

for the balance of its length through Alberta and then becomes Northwest Territories Highway 1.

Route description

The Mackenzie Highway is designated as part of Canada's National Highway System, holding core route status from its terminus at Grimshaw to its intersection with the

Yellowknife Highway The Yellowknife Highway, officially Northwest Territories Highway 3 and also known as the Great Slave Highway, is a highway connecting Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, to the Mackenzie Highway, from a junction north of the Alberta border. F ...

, and northern/remote route status for the remainder of the route to its northern terminus at Wrigley. Originally begun in 1938, prior to

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the project was abandoned at the outbreak of war. It resumed in the late 1940s and completed to Hay River, Northwest Territories, in 1948/1949, but some sections, particularly in the vicinity of Steen River, remained difficult. In 1960, it was extended from

Enterprise Enterprise (or the archaic spelling Enterprize) may refer to: Business and economics Brands and enterprises * Enterprise GP Holdings, an energy holding company * Enterprise plc, a UK civil engineering and maintenance company * Enterpris ...

, approximately south of Hay River, to the northwest, then north past Fort Providence to Behchoko (at the time, known as Rae-Edzo) and southeast to the City of

Yellowknife Yellowknife (; Dogrib: ) is the capital, largest community, and only city in the Northwest Territories, Canada. It is on the northern shore of Great Slave Lake, about south of the Arctic Circle, on the west side of Yellowknife Bay near the ...

, which became the capital of the Northwest Territories in 1967. Much of the extension is now known as Northwest Territories Highway 3, or the Yellowknife Highway. The stretch from Enterprise to Hay River is Northwest Territories Highway 2. Around 1970, the highway was extended west from what is now the southern terminus of Highway 3 to reach

Fort Simpson Fort Simpson (Slavey language: ''Łı́ı́dlı̨ı̨ Kų́ę́'' "place where rivers come together") is a village, the only one in the entire territory, in the Dehcho Region of the Northwest Territories, Canada. The community is located on an ...

, and in 1971, when the section to Fort Simpson was opened to traffic, work began to prepare a road grade from there to Wrigley, but the work was abandoned. The roadway, which starts at a junction from the island that includes "downtown" Fort Simpson, was finally opened in 1994 and includes the N'dulee ferry and ice crossings. On November 8, 2013, the portion of the highway from the Alberta/Northwest Territories border to Enterprise was designated the Highway of Heroes. There are social and economic studies being done on the extension of the highway north from Wrigley to join 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 ...

; the territorial government has completed 34 bridges across all but six of the widest river crossings that serve the ice road and await the all-weather route. In June 2018, an announcement of $140 million funding would result in a bridge over Great Bear River and extend the Mackenzie Highway's all-weather road north by 15 km to Mount Gaudet. Just east of Fort Simpson's airport, the highway crosses the Liard River by

ferry A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...

(summer) and

ice bridge An ice bridge is a frozen natural structure formed over seas, bays, rivers or lake surfaces. They facilitate migration of animals or people over a water body that was previously uncrossable by terrestrial animals, including humans. The most sig ...

(winter). further east of the crossing, the location known as Checkpoint is the site of a former gas station at the junction with the

Liard Highway The Liard Highway (designated Highway 77 in British Columbia and Highway 7 in the Northwest Territories) is a 378 km two-lane highway in Canada that is the only direct road link between British Columbia and the Northwest Territories. Passing t ...

(Northwest Territories Highway 7, British Columbia Highway 77) from

Fort Nelson, British Columbia Fort Nelson is a community in northeast British Columbia, Canada, within the Northern Rockies Regional Municipality (NRRM). It held town status prior to 6 February 2009, when it amalgamated with the former Northern Rockies Regional District to ...

Major intersections

Photo gallery

Trout River rapids close to Sambaa Deh Falls Mackenzie Highway, NWT.jpg, Rapids on Trout River, from Mackenzie Highway
Samba deh falls.jpg, The Mackenzie Highway
Mackenzie Highway from the McNallie Creek parking lot.jpg, In McNallie Creek Territorial Park
NWT Highway of Heroes Sign.jpg,

Highway of Heroes sign

References

External links

Highway 1 - Northwest Territories Department of TransportationMackenzie Valley Highway to Tuktoyaktuk
{{Authority control Alberta provincial highways, 1–216 series Northwest Territories territorial highways