![]() The road carries thousands of loads each winter, bringing in items either too large or too expensive to carry on aircraft. The winter road terminated near the Diavik Diamond mine in 2015 in some years, it has been extended farther north to reach the Lupin and Jericho mines in Nunavut, but both have recently been shuttered. The wider view includes almost all of the ice trucking route in northwest Canada. The top image shows in detail where the winter road divides into two lanes over one of the lakes. The images above were acquired by the Landsat 8 satellite on February 24, 2015. A 25 kilometer per hour (15 miles per hour) speed limit is typical for fully loaded trucks, while 60 kmph (35 mph) is permitted for empty trucks going southbound in “express lanes.” Engineers regularly monitor the ice to keep it safe and passable. To reduce this danger, officials set speed limits for the road based on ice conditions, weather, and weight. In weak spots, these waves can shatter the ice. This sends out waves under the ice, which bounce back from the shoreline and the shallows. The ice sags under a load, and the faster the vehicle, the deeper the depression. Though there are some land crossings between lakes, 87 percent of the 600 kilometer (400 mile) road is on ice. ![]() By early February in most years, they have created a roadbed as wide as an eight-lane freeway, with ice capable of supporting double trailers hauling up to 42 tons. Once the ice is thick enough to support construction vehicles, crews plow snow off the surface and expose the ice directly to the intense cold, making it even thicker. The lakes in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut begin to freeze in early November. So when winter comes, fuel, explosives, and heavy equipment move north in an unusual way: via trucks driving on frozen lakes. And while just about every one of them has an airstrip capable of handling large planes, the cost of air freight is substantial. ![]() The largest settlements tend to be gold or diamond mining towns. In the farthest reaches of northwestern Canada, there are few people and fewer roads. De Beers, on the other hand, is the majority owner of the Gahcho Kué, the world’s largest new diamond mine.įigures released by the Natural Diamond Council show that the diamond industry contributes around 25% of the GDP of the Northwest Territories and that since 1996, the industry has spent more than $23 billion in procurement from NWT and Indigenous-owned businesses.Editor’s Note: Today’s caption is the answer to Earth Observatory’s March 2015 image puzzler. It retained, however, a 40% stake in the Diavik diamond mine, operated by 60% partner Rio Tinto. During the few weeks the road is open, they use it to deliver up to 10,000 loads of essential supplies and equipment to their respective operations.ĭominion used to be the owner of Canada’s first diamond mine, Ekati, but it recently sold it to the Arctic Canadian Diamond Company. The Ice Road has been jointly run by three mining companies – Diavik Diamond Mines, Dominion Diamond Corporation, and De Beers Canada – for over 20 years since the start of Canada’s diamond rush in 1999. ![]() Where there are problem-lake areas with thinner ice, speed limits reduce to 15 kilometres per hour for trucks and if the ice on a stretch of road needs to be thickened, water trucks are called in to add water to that specific area. Once the initial test has been aced, the ice-thickness needs to get to 39 inches so that the road can open up to full load capacity. The vehicle is specially designed to float if it falls through the ice and tows an ice-thickness-detecting sonar. ![]() When this happens, an amphibious Hägglund army-type reconnaissance vehicle is the first one to drive along the road’s entire length. Opening takes place normally in February or March once it has reached a minimum of 29 inches of ice. The route is officially known as the Tibbitt to Contwoyto Winter Road (TCWR) and every year, construction begins in December. In fact, according to the Natural Diamond Council, the Ice Road is considered the safest road in North America, due to the lack of traffic. Although the location where the story takes place is real, the plot does not depict a true story or the actual working conditions (besides the below zero temperatures) in which miners operate in the region. ![]()
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