History
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.
| Year | Road Opened | Road Closed | Freight Carried Tonnes |
Super B Capacity Reached |
Number of Truck Loads North |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | January 29 | April 3 | 111,090 | n/a | 3,703 |
| 2001 | February 1 | April 13 | 245,586 | ~March 3 | 7,981 |
| 2002 | January 26 | April 16 | 256,915 | February 22 | 7,735 |
| 2003 | February 1 | April 2 | 198,818 | February 21 | 5,243 |
| 2004 | January 28 | March 31 | 179,144 | February 23 | 5,091 |
| 2005 | January 26 | April 5 | 252,533 | February 20 | 7,607 |
| 2006 | February 4 | March 26 | 177,674 | not reached | 6,841 |
| 2007 | January 27 | April 9 | 330,002 | February 26 | 10,922 |
| 2008 | January 29 | April 7 | 245,585 | February 15 | 7,387 |
| 2009 | February 1 | March 25 | 173,195 | February 15 | 5,377 |
| 2010 | February 4 | March 24 | 121,000 | TBA | 3,506 |
| 2011 | January 28 | March 31 | 241,000 | February 17 | 6,831 |
| 2012 | February 1 | March 28 | 210,000 | March 1 | 6,545 |
| 2013 | January 30 | March 30 | 223,206 | February 14 | 6,017 |
The road was reopened in 1979 as part of an equipment haul to the new Lupin Mine at Contwoyto Lake, now Nunavut but then the NWT, 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 Hercules C-130 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 and 1987) also benefited from this ice road.
Until 1998, the road was licensed and operated by Echo Bay Mines, owners of the Lupin Mine, after which it became a joint venture between Echo Bay Mines, BHP Billiton, and Diavik Diamond Mines.
Since 1999, the road has been licensed and operated by the Tibbitt to Contwoyto Winter Road Joint Venture, today a partnership between BHP Billiton, Diavik Diamond Mines (Rio Tinto Group) and De Beers Canada. The road is engineered by EBA Engineering, and, since 1998, Nuna Logistics, a 51% Inuit owned joint venture between the Nunasi Corporation, Kitikmeot Corporation and Nuna Management Group, has been responsible for the annual construction, maintenance, dispatching, and camp catering for the primary road, with RTL Enterprises taking care of the secondary road. Security on the road, provided by SecureCheck until 2009, is now provided by Det’on Cho Scarlet Security. Det’on Cho is a Yellowknives Dene company with headquarters in N'Dilo and Scarlet Security, based in Yellowknife, is an Alarand affiliate.
The year 2007 saw record usage of the ice road with 10,922 loads north, totalling 330,002 t (324,790 long tons; 363,765 short tons). That record number doesn't include the 818 back hauls south, totalling 15,000 t (15,000 long tons; 17,000 short tons). 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 99 verbal, 5 written warnings and 5 speeding violations. Nine five-day suspensions and seven season suspensions were issued.
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; the road featured in season 2 was the Tuktoyaktuk Winter Road.
Read more about this topic: Tibbitt To Contwoyto Winter Road
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