Unseasonably mild weather wreaking havoc on N.W.T. winter roads

Unseasonably mild weather across much of the Northwest Territories over the past week has done serious damage to some of the territory's winter roads, including the Mackenzie Valley winter road, which was expected to see one of its busiest seasons ever this year.

Délı̨nę resident Caroline Yukon travelled on the Mackenzie Valley winter road from Délı̨nę to Yellowknife this past weekend. She said that many parts of the road were slushy, and in some areas she could see the ground.

"Its very unusual," she said. "I never saw that before."

Over the past five days, temperatures across the N.W.T. are 14 degrees warmer than seasonal averages, according to Environment Canada scientist Christy Climenhaga, with many communities seeing temperatures above freezing.

But, she said things are expected to cool down soon, across the territory.

"We are expecting a return to more normal temperatures over the next, really couple of days," she said.

Dustin Dewar is the N.W.T government's manager of highway operations for the Sahtu and Dehcho. He said his team is counting on that drop in temperatures to ensure that this year's winter-road resupply into the Sahtu goes well.

Dewar said that unseasonably mild temperatures are having a "huge impact" on winter roads right now, creating rough conditions which increase safety risks.

On the Sambaa K'e access road, the weight limit has decreased to 5,000 kilograms, suspending the community's resupply. 

On the Mackenzie Valley winter road, the department has not placed any restrictions because of the weather, but Dewar said travel could take up to twice as long as possible because of poor road conditions.

"There's definitely potential at this time for the resupply being impacted by warmer weather, like if we see this trend continuing into spring," he said. 

But if temperatures decrease as expected, he said he is "confident" the winter road season in the Sahtu will not be affected by the run of high temperatures.

He said with the warmer weather, the department increased monitoring and maintenance on the Mackenzie Valley winter road to ensure it continues to be safe for vehicles up to 45,000 kilograms.

"The goal now is to get out there and fix up the sections that we can in between traffic," he said.

"Hopefully, within the next couple weeks, we will have a better road surface for the resupply and the traveling public, and we can have an uneventful finish to the season."

But he said the repairs that need to be done will come with a price tag.

"One of the major impacts of this warm weather is that a lot of areas that were constructed in November and the beginning part of December will have to be redone," he said.

He added that while it's hard to know how much the warm weather will add to the costs of the winter road, there will definitely be "financial implications."